any fallout or benefit from hurricane sandy for the candidates? guest: i think it's becoming clear that this has been a plus for president obama. how big, we will see. if you are the incumbents and you're in a tough race, what do you want to do? you want to look presidential. that's a great advantage of incumbency. that is precisely the way he has looked, with the help of his new best friend chris christie. i guess bill clinton will have to step aside. he was the president's new best friend. now it's chris christie. with that bipartisan blessing, the president looks good. for mitt romney, he was pushed off the stage. this storm was a kind of circuit breaker for about three days. momentum, at least according to the romney camp, had been building up for romney. you lose that. politics is not just about the

national voter choice. there's a big dial-up emotions included in this. i think the air went out of the balloon to a certain degree for romney during those three days. does he have time to regen? of course. we are back in the campaign today and will be back at a fever pitch by monday night. look at where the candidates are going. that tells you where the race is really close. they are trying to get that extra point to win. you can do it if you finish up a campaign in a particular states, if the rally is good and everything clicks and you dominate the press in the final 12 hours to 15 hours, you might get an additional point or two out of the few remaining undecided. host: the first call comes from frank in burke, virginia. caller: thank you to c-span. i want to talk about the balance

in fairfax county, the most populous county in virginia. we have electronic and paper. they are outdated and they were supposed to have been disposed of five years ago. yet the options of paper or electronic when you go to vote. they're not just for emergency. guest: sometimes paper is better. i know it's not environmentally sound, but the more i look at the the ballot questions, the more i am always attracted to paper ballots. they are simple. as long as they are carefully guarded -- and that's always a problem in certain areas of the country -- they can be superior to these fancy machines. i salute you for being vigilant. i think people on both sides need to be vigilant. people have to have confidence in the results. although i would also caution people against too many conspiracy theories. i've heard them on the left hand on the right.

i guarantee, whatever party loses on tuesday, it will take until wednesday noon for the conspiracy theories to start about how the election was stolen. we all have a responsibility not to live permanently on the grassy knoll. host: ryan in springfield, tennessee, republican. caller: can you hear me? host: we are listening. caller: the congressional races, there are four of them in virginia. all three of them are republicansi who picked up democrats. i want to hear him talk about those four races. i believe republicans will hold those three but i think frank could in the future go to a democrat, his seat. i think frank connolly will hold

on. i wonder if he thinks there will be a couple of upsets in senate races too? shelly berkeley will defeat her opponent in nevada and i think todd akin will be the winner in his race. host: is this a hobby of yours to follow politics? caller: yes. guest: i'm happy to answer a fellow hobbyists. it becomes your vocation if you let. in virginia, i can simplify the current situation for you. all the incumbents are going to win. they have done a marvelous job working with the state legislature in creating districts that it would be very difficult for them to lose them. so they get my gold star for self-serving artistry. that happens all over the country. so you are not gone to see any change in the virginia delegation this year, i don't

believe. they all benefited from redistricting, democrats and republicans alike. as far as frank wolf, he is as secure as you can get. once he retires -- and he's been in there since early 1981 -- that district being located primarily in northern virginia in the more populous counties but also some more rural counties, that could be a competitive district. i think you are right about that. as far as the senate races, we believe dean heller will defeat shelley berkeley. it will be close. the democrats are doinga le. an upset is not unheard ofgiven. i would not rule out berkeley entirely, by any means, but i think dean heller will manage to win a close election because he's the incumbent. as far as missouri, we kept that open for a while.

let's be honest, the republicans are apoplectic about todd akin. the republicans managed in their primary to find the the one candidate who could've lost to claire mccaskill. mitt romney is going to win 55% in missouri this year. i think any respectable republican who did not put both feet in his mouth would have carried that race. we now think claire mccaskill has a lead to a large enough to survive the romney landslide in missouri. also, there is a libertarian on the ballot there. that percentage will surprise you. that's where a lot of republicans who will not support todd akin and will not support claire mccaskill will go, i think.

that should enable claire mccaskill to hold received another six years. host: when you look at virginia, what will you be watching on election night? guest: i want to see -- you always watch the first votes to come in. and it varies from year to year. they come in from different places, so you have to know the history of each city and county and even the precincts, to know the results. i will look at the critical swing counties in northern virginia, loudoun county and prince william county. i will be looking at chesterfield, richmond, enrico. i want to see if he will get over 40%. if he's in the 30's in chesterfield, that's a bad sign for him. i will look for virginia beach, which is virginia's largest city in population. fairfax is the largest county and the largest locality, but virginia beach is the largest city. it tends to be more conservative and republican because of a large military population and retired veteran population as well. john mccain carried that very narrowly.

it was practically a 50-50 with obama. there's no way it's going to be that close this time. but i want to see what presented president obama gets in virginia beach. if the bows out of the water, that tells me something. if it's a close race, that tells me something. just a few examples. host: washington, d.c., on our independent line. caller: i am interested to know where you think independent voters are going to go in this election. i don't mean just in terms of republican or democrat. how are the third party candidates going to affect the election? in particular, gary johnson?

a lot of people tend to think he will take away votes from the republican nominee, but i think in new mexico and michigan he is taking votes away from obama. if you could give me some insight into what you think will happen there. guest: that is a good question because we tend to oversimplified about independent and third-party candidates. we need to remember first of all some people turn out to vote for them that would not make a choice between the two major party candidates. maybe they would show up and vote for a member of congress or the local sheriff, i don't know. but it is not as though all of those votes are taken from a major party candidate. that is simply not true. having said that, it is true some votes are taken from major party candidates.

if you only have a choice of a democrat or republican, some would make a choice. libertarians in general take a few more votes from republicans than democrats. maybe more than a few votes. it depends on the state and the race and the circumstances. gary johnson, i think, will take more votes from mitt romney than barack obama but i do not think it will make a difference in any state unless we have three, four, five states that are squeakers and then you get in a situation like 2000 with ralph nader. as far as gary johnson's real impact, let's put it in context. since libertarians have run for president in the modern era, they have only one more than 1% a single time, i think it is 1980 when mr. clark was running against reagan and jimmy carter. otherwise they get about a half a percent or less of the

national vote. even ron paul got half a percent, a belief, when he ran in 1988. so we are not talking about a whole lot of votes. so, they could be critical votes in certain states that are very close. we have an independent in virginia, former congressman virgil goode who once represented the area i am in right now, fifth district of virginia. he was a very popular congressman. he lost a reelection in 2008 in the obama wave by just a tiny number of votes, about 700. it was the closest congressional race in the entire country in 2008. he's got strong support on the north carolina border. he is a very conservative republican. he is running as the constitution candidate because he thinks mitt romney and the republicans are too liberal on immigration and other issues. how many votes will begin? i don't have a clue. he shows up in polls at 1% or 2%, but people tend to respond to polls more favorably to third-party candidates than they act on election day and it is behavior on election day that matters.

if virginia turns out to be 10,000 votes between romney and obama and virgil goode its 25,000 votes, you could make the argument he might have cost mitt romney the state. but otherwise i doubt it. and there is a liberal candidate, jill stein, the green party candidate. i doubt she gets a very much support. >> a few minutes left with our guest larry sabato -- host: a few minutes left for our guests larry sabato. hi, rose. caller: i am so glad to get on to talk with you. i have issues if i could take a little time. it is called the koch brothers issues. there was a national geographic documentary and i am quoting a

lot of it, where they were born and raised in russia and they inherited a lot of money and they are actually communists. so all the republican party kind of liens on their side. money is not given away -- some people just give money away or they loan it to you, but if you are going to give money for a republican to win, to buy a governor or a president, there is something you want back. all of these republicans better take in mind that they could be voting for a communist which is a movement coming into our country. the documentary says -- host: where did you see the documentary? caller: national geographic. from noon until 6:00, and half of it was about the koch brothers.

but you saw it on the national geographic jenna? larry sabato, any response? guest: i am just on to say this. i never met the koch brothers and i never -- never corresponded with them. i've got news for you. they are not communists. i am pretty sure of that. so, let me just correct the record, and i think we should go on. host: how often do voters split tickets in virginia? guest: a very good question. virginia was once the ticket splitting capital of america literally. this was back in the 1970's. we have three elected offices -- governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general. we actually had at the same time and republican governor, independent the tenant governor and democratic attorney general. one of our two u.s. senators

was an independent, elected twice. an independent missed winning the governorship by 15,000 votes over a million passed in 1973. we were the ticket splitting capital of america. we have cents settled back into partisan voting with the rest of america. this is a very polarized era. having said that, when you have close elections you still have a band of voters who will mix and match on the ballot, either because they want to mix and match or they are simply reacting to the individual candidates. in the case of romney and kaine, i have personally been in situations where straw votes were taken among large groups and you generally find you have 3, 4, 5% of the romney boaters picking tim kane for various reasons. some of these romney voters are more moderate republicans and

the like tim kane better than his opponent. are there similar voters for obama and george allen? i am sure there are. i never met one of them. but i will say this -- george allen, despite what happened in 2006, he has won from time to time in running for statewide office 15% of the african- american vote. there would be a case in some precincts where you find some obama-allen voters. it will be interesting to see what the ticket-splitting pattern is. i can clearly see and most observers have come across the same thing, i can clearly see a band of voters who vote for mitt romney who also would for tim kaine. host: finally a tweet -- guest: it is a major force in the republican party.

they strongly support people like our current attorney general ken cuccinelli. a major force in the republican party. they could easily dominate any republican convention. we've got a convention picking the republican nominee for governor, lieutenant governor, an attorney general to be held next spring. you can expect a tea party influence to be high. are they at all influential with the democrats? of course not. do they command majority support in virginia? no. but if you are a major influence in one party it means you can get some of your people nominated to local and state office and thereby in a good year for your party, obtain power. host: larry sabato is the director of the center for politics at the university of virginia. >> did wrong be spending the day in virginia.

-- mitt romney spending the day and -- yes. president obama back on the campaign trail today. starting the day in green bay, wisconsin. then to wisconsin. we will have that live for you here at c-span on 9:00 eastern. now back to the battleground state of virginia with the head of the state democratic party and the co-tier of the mitt romney campaign in virginia. host: we are back live in leesburg, va., about an hour west of washington, d.c.. it is a swing county in the state of virginia. as we go to the presidential election, joining us inside the courthouse to discuss the commonwealth of virginia is role in the election, barbara comstock, whose district includes walden, a county.

joining her is the chairman of the virginia democratic party. if we could start with you, ye is clouded such a swing county? >> it is an area that has a lot of commuters, professionals, and a lot of people this year who are very concerned with the increase taxes that we would see, do you reversed. as well as the deep defense cuts, which is something that would really impact the area dramatically. george mason and stephen fuller, one of the preeminent economists in our area said the defense cuts could cause a recession in virginia and almost double the unemployment numbers. bridget has been several --

rigid has been scary -- very successful in having a low unemployment rate. jobs is the number one priority. that is why we are very courageous that the numbers of supporters in for mitt romney this year. >> does your canada have to win the county to win virginia? guest: i don't know we have to, i expect we will. it was only a narrow margin that president obama won loudoun, the last time and it really was an aberration. virginia republicans have been winning loudoun county in 2009 when governor bob mcdonnell won this area, and then in 2010, of course our congressman frank wolfe, he is extremely popularhe is of course on the ticket this year. he always wins resoundingly. in 2011, we swept all of the state and local seats here in

this year we are seeing strong support for governor romney because his message has been focused on jobs as the number one priority, much like our governor mcdonnell. in the state legislature we want to have a partner in washington who will work with us on the top priority and will work of -- with us to keep virginia's economy strong and national certainly were a lot of our jobs come from, as well as protecting our national security -- where a lot of the high-tech industry is coming from. so, it is very important we keep being -- the low taxes that we have and keep the 21st century economy going and governor romney is the kind of partner we can continue this good practice with. host: bryan ran, chairman of the

virginia democratic party. -- brian moran, chairman of the virginia democratic party. president obama won in 2008. what is your strategy to repeat? guest: i agree with much of barbour said in terms of virginia. but governor tim kaine running brought a lot of of the prosperity to virginia. when they talk about less government and tax cuts, this isit looks like enormous cuts toyou can't have it both ways. they don't want to have any revenues to balance the books and what substantial cuts to government spending, that is what looks like in the commonwealth of virginia. when you make the draconian cuts thousands of lost jobs. they estimate 200,000 jobs just we may agree on the issues but we certainly disagree on how to get there. is turnout.

i say that because in 2008 we had 75% turnout in virginia. three out of four voted. it is terrific. we want that type of turnout, democrats, republicans, and independents to engage in democracy. here in loudoun, it was over 75% turnout. over 70 percent -- 77% to thousand eight and barack obama received 54% of the vote. what it means to us as we are doing everything we can to get out the vote. we have five days left. we're working on it for weeks, if not months.

we have tremendous resources in as well. loudoun and the rest of the commonwealth. i think we have a superior ground game, a superior and help re-elect the president of the ninth of state and re-elect governor tim kaine as yanez state senator. host: in "the washington post" is this article -- ground game has gone into hyperdrive in virginia. guest: the democrats in virginia and obama campaign has been doing this for months. they decided early to contest virginia. in fact, the president's spring for spending so much money friends end on the campaign.

i think it was the right expenditure. we are just inundated right now, saturated by television ads. but that is an air warw. ars our won on the ground and that those where the obama whether southwest or in swing county loudoun -- we have officers, offices, volunteers, every weekend we have a lot of people door knocking and making the vote out on november 6. prevail on november 6 because of the superior ground game and the volunteers turning out. we have the right message, the right candidate and we have the volunteers to support the candidacy. guest: the ground game i'd describe it sounds more like the 2008 obama campaign than this year. 2008, republicans actually would not very competitive. we did not have the resources that we needed because at that point, virginia had not been a swing state. this year we have over 30 offices, we have been very

active. mark warner, the democratic senator, remarked when he drove around the state he was not seeing the enthusiasm he saw four years ago and he is seeing romney signs all over the place. loudoun, a lot of the signs but prior to the storm you would number of romney signs here. and also in my part of the district, fairfax county, which there was just an overwhelming number of romney signs. we hear all the time people -- democrats, idds who say they voted for barack obama four years ago and are not voting for him now -- democrat, independents. they understand what our ground zero for barack obama's tax increasest. axmaggedon -- tax increases. taxmaggedon will be here. most of our high-tech community, their businesses are under 50 employees.

start of the businesses were people literally do start them in their basement. they will be hit by these tax increases because the tax increases -- about two-thirds of them hit small businesses. then you go to those defense cuts where, as we see in bob woodward's book, the defense cuts and the sequestration idea was the president's idea. he wanted cuts that would disproportionately hit our defense industry. that is not only an irresponsible thing on the national security from, something like a senator john warner -- protecting our national security and armed forces, he would never allow those kinds of cuts and certainly strongly opposes them. our entire delegation has been

working against those, but get the president says we have to tax your high-tech businesses and your defense contractors who are a lot of small contractors and small businesses, or we will take this ax to the defense industry. we do not need to do that. it is unsafe in the dangerous world we live in. we know we need to have both a strong economy and a strong defense industry, and that is what mitt romney has been talking strongly about and why we are hearing such a good response. in the same way george allen, who has been our senator, and worked side-by-side with senator john warner for years, you would probably see george allen be on the armed services committee and we would have the reputation here in virginia because he would go in with security, having served before, and his colleagues would want him in the position to have the expertise that he has from learning to work with john warner. he would be a great partner for mitt romney protecting

virginia's interest as well as our national security and also working with us to get this economy kicked into gear. virginia have been number one for jobs because we have not increased taxes. that is a record mitt romney had when he was governor. brian and i are both from massachusetts. democrat family originally. massachusetts, 87% democrat legislature governor romney had and he reached across the iowa and came up with a bipartisan solutions and was able to cut spending -- he reached across the aisle, camel with bipartisan solutions and was able to cut spending without harming critical -- host: delegate comstock, we need to get to calls as well. housethis is "richmond times-

dispatch" -- lead story. obama-romney tide of virginia. it shows the president up a few points. but if you go to real clear politics and look at the average, mr. romney is up by half a point. today live on c-span. your candidate to return to the state? guest: he will be hero -- be here saturday and he has been here over and over. prince william, loudoun. coming again to prince william saturday night. which is nice. it is a spillover from being a battleground state. we have all the candidates coming in on a regular basis so fellow virginians get to see and hear from the candidates. of course, we have to put up

with all of the television ads as well. but it is fun to have all the important for virginians to hear from him. the president is working diligently to make sure the communities struck by sandy in new jersey and new york, working in a bipartisan way with governor chris christie from new jersey in surveying the damage. that is where government works, fema, a program governor romney called for eliminating during the republican debate -- guest: not all, absolutely false. -- governor romney said that -- he talked about not funding in -- guest: governor romney said that, talk about not funding it. only government has the opportunity to provide those services certainly in an emergency like this. fema has to respond immediately. you saw the first responders -- police, fire, the municipal services that have to respond so quickly and so well. our hearts and thoughts go out to those affected communities and the president is responding quickly. he will get back on to the

campaign trail on saturday in the commonwealth. let's go back to a lot of what barbour had to say in her presentation. went for barack obama was because they were responding to the bush presidency. during the bush presidency he took eight surplus from a year 2000 with -- took a surplus from the year 2000 and turned it into deficit by imposing the bush tax including millionaires. what governor romney is proposing -- let's return to those policies, the eight years of george bush. to the wealthy. also when president obama took office in january of 2009, we were losing over 700,000 jobs a month.

700,000 jobs a month we were losing when george bush left office and president barackwe will hear tomorrow the new jobs report, we are creating over 100,000 jobs. 5.2 million new jobs during this barack obama president's see, under 8% unemployment rate -- during this barack obama presidency. 32 months of the private sector job growth. you compare that to where we were when bush left office and the president took office. that is a remarkable improvement. that is the pathway to recovery, and president obama has beenthis is no time to change course and go back to -- we don't know what we will be getting with governor romney. he was governor of

massachusetts. rounding achievement was mandatory health care for everyone -- his crowning achievement. what president's day will we get from former governor romney? -- what presidency will we get? host: we will stop there. statements. now we will turn it over to viewers, and if you can keep your answers a little shorter so leesburg, virginia, loudoun county courthouse. about an hour outside of washington. robert in columbia, south carolina, on the democrats' line here you are first. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span, america -- good morning, ladiespresident obama has been studying all aspects of the job

and now the country is poised for progress. now mitt romney wants to be president so badly he is foaming at the mouth and saying anything at any time trying to hoodwink the voters. he missed his chance to beat mccain, then he would have made decisions obama has made. now that the obama administration has made the tough decisions, now mr. romney wants to take credit and hoodwink the voters. he had a fair chance to win in 2008 and then he could decide to implement policies as far as foreign policy, health care, jobs. host: we will get a response from barbara comstock, who is one of the chairs of the romney for virginia campaign. guest: i would just quote joe biden -- the middle class has

years. they have been buried because this president's economic policies failed. the president said when he came would get unemployment wellhe said that he was going to cut the debt that was $10 trillion in half, down to $5 trillion. now it is $16 children. he failed by a factor of three times what he said he was going to do. his health care bill, a huge government monstrosity, not level, would end up costing us $2,500 more in premiums when he that it would be $2,500 less. the president himself said if he did not get this done, if he did not turn this economy around in three years it would be a

one-term proposition. why we are looking to mitt romney -- i was talking before about how romney cut the budget in massachusetts. on a bipartisan basis with 87% legislature and that the same time he cut taxes 19 times. do get -- to get massachusetts democrats to cut taxes, you have to come in with good policies which governor romney understand as a business person and understands as somebody who was at the olympics and had to turnwhen he went into the olympics, he had less than three years to turn it around and take the scandal that plagued mess. he did it and no salary. he was both governor and worked at the olympics and never took a salary. he believed in public service. he did it for the olympics to great national acclaim, he has done it with a business, and he did it flew taxachusettes. if he can do it with the democrats taken do it with congress.

host: this one is for you, brian moran. maria on the republican line. caller: i just wanted to ask a question. i am a mother of four. i lived in loudoun county. i have lived here 10 years. i work for a small business. i don't see what mr. obama has done in the last four years to help me. the business i work for is not hiring. they don't know what to do with obamacare. this is a company that was built from nothing and they are paralyzed. my kids -- i pay more for gas. you talk about loudoun in 2008, and it was not about the bush tax cuts. i have lived here for 10 years. it was people's visceral reaction to the war. i have not seen anything from

mr. obama in the last four years. my husband lost his job and all of my neighbors tied to the defense industry are so nervous that they are going to be next. i do not know how you can say mr. obama has done anything for loudoun county. host: let's get an answer from the chairman of the democratic party. guest: thank you for the question during the war that people were concerned about in 2008 has been ended. it was president obama who brought the termination of the war in iraq, and withdrawing troops from afghanistan and now prepared for nation-building here at home rather than afghanistan and iraq. that war has been brought to an end by the president. in terms of locally, the president -- the fact of the matter is, as a said earlier, 700,000 jobs a month, over 700,000 jobs a month we were losing at the termination of the bush presidency.

we are working our way back. this is a fiscal ditching that was deep. that is why it is no time to turn to the same policies that got us into it in the first place. that is why the president is talking about small businesses -- the payroll tax cut. he also saved the auto industry versus governor romney who said let it go bankrupt. hundreds of thousands of jobs associated with the auto industry in america. 5.2 million new jobs. 32 straight months of private sector job growth. now, those defense cuts, here in virginia it is a very important local issue. who is going to get out of some of the tax cut -- i mean, defense cuts. let's remember how we got there. it was the republican congress who said we are not going to raise the debt limit, and that is why this came to be. they were not going to raise the debt limit. which every economist in the

country said it would put us and an economic spiral. we have to raise the debt limit. they negotiated back and forth and ended up with these defense cuts. but that was not the president's idea and not the democratic congress' idea. when you hear the republican party and particularly governor romney saying we will cut -- and his vice president, paul ryan, less government, more cuts. what does it mean? it means the very cuts we are looking at now in defense. 200,000 jobs in virginia. let's examine the entire picture and not just listen to those ads that somehow are letting the defense cutbacks at governor tim kaine who was not an office or the present. this is because the republican obstructionist congress saw political opportunity and said we are not going to raise heavy debt ceiling.

how irresponsible? host: let's go to the next call. kentucky on the independent line. debbie. please, go ahead. caller: i am calling because of all of this -- what he did, the damage in new jersey. that is just for him to get help. he has not done nothing for us for the last four years. that president did nothing but put us all and the poor house. my husband is a welder and he lost his job and got another job, lower pay, and we are about to lose our home and everything because of obama. now, i don't know who to vote for, but it sure will not beat obama. host: that was debbie in kentucky.

chairman moran, calling from kentucky and south west virginia is a different animal than a lot of parts of virginia. what is your message to south west virginia? guest: the same message as i talk to voters here in northern virginia. we cannot return to the same economic policies that got us into this fiscal ditch in the first place and that is what governor romney is proposing. again, 5.2 million new jobs, 32 straight months of private sector job growth. 7.8% unemployment. south west virginia -- education is important. guest: coal is important -- guest: taking down on how often i am interrupted. health care -- 1.2 million medicare recipients here in virginia now have eight additional years on medicare

with extended medicare for another eight years. a healthy system. 63,000 young virginians have access to health care up to the age of 26. seniors now have access to preventive health care services, which is far cheaper treating it up front and an emergency room. we extended what governor romney did in massachusetts and did it nationwide and virginians have experienced improved health care and access because of that. education -- the president has been working on higher education higherpell grant access. -- higher education, grant access. a young woman told me i am not a democrat or republican, but i am supporting president obama because i am attending a local community college on a pell grant and president obama who doubled the size of pell grants so all of americans have access

to higher education. if you look at the unemployment rate, if you have a bachelor's degree, 4%, associate's degree, about 6%. but if all you have is a high- school diploma, it is double digits. the president understands it. he is investing in higher education through excess of pell grants so all americans have access to grow -- better skill and be able to compete. host: what is your candidate's message to southwest virginia? guest: south west virginia understands that they have been buried by this administration because of their policies on coal. this administration, this party has just been extremely hostile. they have killed the coal industry. one promise barack obama cap -- he said if you want to start a new coal plant, you will go

bankrupt. we lost 1200 johnsburg recently -- 1200 jobs recently. it is not just a problem for south west virginia c coal is part of where we get our energy and a lecture city. have data centers. i passed a bill to give a better tax treatment to data centers to come in here and grow them through what virginia and here in loudoun county. we recently had new companies coming in and do this, but they depend on low-cost, affordable energy. and this administration is driving the cost of energy up and driving people out of work. those people who lost those 1200 jobs at good, high-paying jobs. they had health care. they were able to pay for retirement, help their kids go

to school. now they have lost their jobs and this administration is absolutely opposed to this industry in a way -- you have not seen barack obama go down to that area. mr. romney has been down there, paul ryan. they have gotten a huge, strong response. in 2010, rick boucher who have been there for years, was beaten by the republican candidate, morgan griffith, who was the majority leader of the house of delegates. very strong support in southwest virginia because they understand governor romney has a plan for energy. host: we will have to leave the answer there. we appreciate your time. barbara comstock one of the co- chairs of the romney for virginia campaign and primary and is chairman of the virginia democratic party. pat is on our democrats' line. caller: i worked for $12 an hour under bush, under carter -- under clinton.

i worked for $12 an hour. under bush, people working for 7-something an hour. bush destroyed the country. then he turned around and put us in two wars and turned around and try to blame it on obama and the democratic -- i am disabled now and i watch a lot of c-span. and if you watch congress, republican congress is destructive and they have brought the country to its knees. host: barbara comstock, if you would answer that along with this tweet -- true? guest: no, look what governor romney wants to do is much like

what we did a virginia. we are the number one state for jobs because we worked on a partisan -- bipartisan basis like governor romney did it. he has a record of working on a bipartisan basis whereas barack obama has actually failed on being bipartisan. and governor romney again will be bipartisan on things like offshore drilling which are other good, high-paying jobs in virginia that mark warner supports. you will be able to have a president romney work with mark warner and george allen on a bipartisan basis to open up offshore drilling which he said he would do saidday one. those are not minimum-wage jobs. they are health care. you can get pensions. it could bring millions, even billions and against the capital of east coast for energy which governor mcdonnell wants to do. we want to partner with the legislature -- it supports it on a bipartisan basis as well as congressional leadership.

but unfortunately barack obama and the democrat leadership and his party in virginia opposes the good common sense of sure drilling policies which mark warner, george alley -- george allen support. guest: why didn't you run for reelection in massachusetts? they can run for reelection. why is he losing by double digits, i think 15% in massachusetts? i have heard several times what a fine job he did in massachusetts. the singular achievement he had with respect to mandatory health care, the president adopted nationally and a nail president obama -- president obama adopted it nationally as part of his affordable care act and governor romney ran away from it as soon as he started running for president. he is losing massachusetts

overwhelming need. he chose not to run for reelection. guest: at you never wanted to be a lifetime politician -- i know it is a typical politician response. but he also has done a lot of things in the private sector. he did not feel he needed to run again. host: we will leave the discussion and move on to mike on the independent line. our guests are barbara comstock and and brian moran. caller: i am a strong democrat area and the last six to eight months, everything associated with the coal mines, we have had doubts of the people laid off. how do you think this will affect the presidential election? how he supported the power plant to be built. everyone in this area knows mr. kaine did not want the power plant built. host: brian moran.

i have been de -- guest: i have been their numerous times and governor kaine approve the permitting for the coal power plant in southwest virginia. i think that is what the caller was referencing. specifically it was governor kaine who permitted it. it is a hybrid. i think it is the innovative approach of including coal as part of a broad energy position which is what president obama has done as well. really reaching in terms of this issue.

governor kaine supported it and i was with him in front of coal miners. if you support coal, you should support miners. the republican party eradicated the benefits in terms of the spouses of coal miners who have passed away because of the dangerous work. black lung disease. if you are going to embrace coal you have to embrace the coal miners who work so hard to make sure it is a usable resource. this is a two-part position and the democrats have stood up for them. and i hope those miners will join a supporting the democratic candidate. host: our guests are in leesburg, virginia, and the next call comes from john from vermont on the republican line. caller: greetings from the socialist paradise of a vermont

where we republicans are an endangered species. just a quick comment to governor romney -- have the same problem we have an out of control democratic majority in the house and the senate. so, the governor is powerless to do anything. and now we have a democrat for governor. to hang that on romney is misdirected. my question is for the lovely lady there -- rahm emanuel said never let a good thing like a hurricane go to waste. i was wondering how the virginia republican party manages to counter the great photo op the president had. and vermont had hurricane irene last year and our governor, a democrat, made lots of money on that one. i would not want to predict the

next election. but how does the virginia republican party plan to counter that? host: barbara comstock? guest: we were hit with a hurricane here, too, particularly hard in northern virginia, lost power for several days. our hearts and our prayers go out to new jersey and new york. we are all working together on a bipartisan basis. use of governor romney working to get red cross relief -- you saw governor romney. i think this is something where the country all unites together. i would like to address, having been down to the mines myself also and knowing how strong george allen and governor romney have been in support of what is going on down there and all the jobs that have been lost, everybody knows that the democratic party has just been anti-coal. when brian ran himself for

governor he attacked by a coal industry and there were all sorts of battles in the democratic primary to see who was the most anti-kohl. we need coal as part of our all of the above strategy. we need offshore drilling. we need all of these good, high-paying energy jobs and on day one, governor romney will let the offshore drilling go forward and take these regulations that have been crushing the coal industry, the middle class that has been buried in southwest virginia been very -- southwest virginia. they know exactly what joe biden has been talking about with the middle class being buried because they have been one of the top zip codes buried by the administration -- epa regulations. brian has acknowledged the industry has been good at improving things and working well but this president has been one of the most anti-coal

president's. that is why you see joe manchin, a democrat from west virginia attacking the present. people from ohio. host: thank you for that, barbara comstock. brian moran, on election night what will you be watching for? loudoun county? guest: loudoun county, prince william county, virginia beach, hampton roads, henrico county outside of richmond. we will get a good indication of those communities and the turnout. it will be at an exciting time here in virginia. we certainly enjoying the position of being a battleground state. it is turnout. virginia voters are very informed voters. they look at the policies of both of these candidates. and we expected to be close. we made history in 2008, the

first time in 44 years it helped support -- we helped support a democrat to the white house. i think we would do it again because we have the right message, the right policies. we are getting out of the fiscal ditch. host: barbara comstock, where would you be watching? guest: i will be working for the next six days, because if you come election day i will be working through 7:00 p.m., both loudoun county of fairfax county, watching closely. i have already been looking at the absentee ballot polls and getting a great response here in loudoun and my part of fairfax county. i feel very good about that . i think brian is right. we will go looking at the numbers. if you see where obama has run up the score last time, we have had a very aggressive absentee

voting record. absentee voting in person is still allowed and we extended the hours because of the storm. you can still vote from 12:00 until 8:00 in fairfax and in loudoun until 8:00, and this saturday will be the last day for absentee in person voting. we want everyone to get out and vote and uncovered their friends. we just need a small number of people really to turn it are wrong. if you want jobs to be your number one priority, a strong economy and a strong defense we need to have for our country and to have virginia's jobs be vibrant, governor romney is someone who has worked on a bipartisan basis. george allen has the same record. host: we will get to the senate race in a minute but we will hear from wanda in a north carolina on the democrats' line. barbara comstock and brian moran are the guests. caller: i was calling.

in 2008 when president obama got in there, we were in trouble for the eight years president bush was there. i have seen a lot of changes in my life. i had children in college and they all succeeded. and when president obama did do the thing for the colleges, my daughter had came out without a whole lot of unnecessary -- having to pay back that money to her scholarship. my other daughter is still paying way over the amount and they are still suffering from that. i already voted. i did early voting. we shouldn't be arguing back and forth about democrat and republican and whenever.

because all of us will go to one heaven or one hell and there should be togetherness. all the negative ads, it does hurt the independent voters and the one out here trying to vote because it is nothing nice. it is just mean. today, i just thank you for giving me a chance to share. last monday i lost my home -- it is not even about that because i know god will take care of it. but with everything going on -- president obama came into office. i have for people disrespecting him like that because he is the president -- he did come into office, he said he could not get it done in four years. and everybody knew that. but the gas prices are not as high.

host: we will have to live there. i am so sorry. brian moran and ann barbara comstock, you each have one minute. guest: let me address the senate race. it was governor tim kaine -- we can only run one term in virginia, and we were the best manage state in the country, the best state to do business and the best state for child's lifetime success. those were third-party validators who said that. he was a tremendous governor. we do come together as americans. we have big challenges ahead. governor kaine can do that as the next u.s. senator and president obama has demonstrated. you have seen him with governor chris christie working together. people want to see democrats and republicans coming together to face the challenges. we have the best nation in the

world. we need to maintain the status. we are the best nation, we are great americans. and i want to make sure we continue on this path. because we have been down that road. tax cuts for the very wealthy while the rest of us have to -- where is the fair share? >> i apologize, your minute is up. barbara comstock, one minute. host: thank you very much for allowing me to be here. guest: i wanted to adjust the senate race -- tim kaine was all -- was also the person who wanted the gas tax, which even brian moran opposed, he united people it is the gas tax and also left us with a $4 billion deficit. when i came into office, governor mcdonnell closed the deficit without raising taxes. we rejected kaine's tax increase rejected 97-0 of the

house of delegates and rejected his drastic cuts to northern virginia schools of $120 million. we reopen that the rest stops that he closed. government donald open them. -- governor mcdonnell opened them. and the billion dollars in transportation we went back to work force. george allen has a reputation for balancing budgets. he did not as governor ever tried to raise taxes. he was a leader in congress not taxing the internet. the internet is such a big part of virginia business and allowing it to thrive has been great and it is a great part of george allen's legacy. looking forward to having someone in there who would be a champion for our defense industry, a champion for our tech industry and able to cut budgets carefully without increasing taxes and being a partner for mr. romney who did it in massachusetts. if he could do it in massachusetts, he could do it anywhere.

host: one of the co-chairs for romney for virginia campaign and brian moran is the chairman of the democratic party in virginia. mr. moran, i wanted to give you an opportunity to adjust this article. the attorney general cuccinelli is to probe your brother's son -- anything to say regarding your nephew? guest: i was a prosecutor for several years and we consulted a lot of people. it was very unfortunate but it was not criminal. we would welcome the investigation. he humored someone. it was very unfortunate. he learned a very valuable lesson but in a very public and embarrassing fashion. but he will recover. he is a good kid. this does make him stronger and builds character. you cannot leave your guard down in these types of situations right now.

it is unfortunate but he is going to recover and we will move forward. host: brian moran and barbara comstock, this has been c-span's look at the battleground state of virginia. and we have been live from the loudoun county courthouse and leesburg, virginia. thank you all for being with us. >> and here on c-span we will back in virginia in just a short bit. mitt romney is in doswell virginia for a campaign rally coming up this afternoon at about 2:15 eastern. we'll have it life for you. president obama back on the campaign trail today. he has three appearances today and his last one is in colorado. we'll have that at 9:00 eerp. he started the day in wisconsin and he talked about federal relief efforts for hurricane sandy. >> for the past few days, all of us have been focused on one

of the worst storms in our life times. we're humbled by nature's destructive power. we mourn the loss of so many people. our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones. we pledge to help those who lives have been turned upside down. and i was out in new jersey yesterday and saw the devastation and you really get a sense of how difficult this is going to be for a lot of people. but we've also been inspired these past few days because when disaster strikes, we see america at its best. all the petty difference that is consume news normal times all seem to melt away. there are no democrats or republicans during a storm, they're just fellow americans. [applause]

leaders of different parties working to fix what's broken, neighbors helping neighbors cope with tradgeji. communities rallying to rebuild. a spirit that says in the end we're all in this together. >> president obama this morning in green bay, he is in las vegas later this afternoon and wrabs up in colorado. we will have that live here on c-span. we're waiting to take you live to virginia, doswell, virginia, mitt romney has a campaign rally there. we'll have it live once it starts. on this morning's watch watch journal we asked which candidate can best reach across the aisle. >> when disaster strikes voters

put competence over ideology t. 2012 campaign has evolved over the size of government. in times of natural disaster all but the most rug ged individuals expect government to provide warnings and recovery assistance and they expect officiales to set aside partisan differences. when it's botched as it was in the wake of hurricane katrina. they both graps these principles as they toured the shore. --

>> >> follow today east "washington journal" in the video library at cspan.org. live coverage from doswell virginia on c-span. >> i see there are some really young people and others a little bit older but younger. this election is for you, to make sure you have the same opportunities to catch your dream that we had growing up. [applause]

and unlike my opponent who wants to be president obama senator, i want to be virginia's senator. [applause] we are so very fortunate to have here in virginia a governor who is leading a come back in the common wealth of virginia. [applause] we need leaders -- what we did, bob you were in the legislature and so was eric at the time. the democrats controlled the general assembly but we cut taxes and made our streets safer, higher ack demics in our schools and over 3,000 jobs were created in those four years. mitt romney was governor of massachusetts also with a democratic legislature and what he was able to do is cut red tape and balance the budget.

that's the kind of leadership that mitt romney will bring to us as president of the united states. now folks, in this campaign, we've been focused on your blueprint for america's come back. ideas that ip spire people for solutions that work, it's a projob growth plan of action. we need taxes that are more simple and fair, and close the loopholes. we need productive energy policy and empowering education. we all need to be united. and i know the governor, members of the general assembly but also with mitt romney as president, we can unite americans behind this mission. let's send a message of the world that america is open for business again. [applause]

and a positive way of getting all this done is recognizing that here in america we're very blessed, blessed with freedom, blessed with fertile ground where we can grow crops to feed ourselves. we're also blessed to be number one in the world when it comes to energy resources. we have the energy resources here in virginia from our coal fields to our coast. and on day one, after i get elected by you as u.s. senator, i will introduce a bill that very first day to allow us in virginia to produce oil and natural gas off our coast and use their coal fields. [applause] . and when we have mitt romney in the white house we're going to have a president who will stop e.p.a.'s assault on coal and heel be saying yes to virginia energy from our coast to the coal fields, yes to american

energy and energy jobs and american energy ind pendens. -- independence [applause] >> and we can have a government in washington that is effective and accountability. leadership is about setting priorities and working together to achieve those goals t. paramount responsibility of the federal government is national defense. and i see some veterans with their hats on. all the veterans, raise your hand. [applause] thank you. thank you for your service to our country and thank your families as well. and we need to have america keep our promises to our veterans and their families for the benefits they've errand.

more over, we have new threats from washington t. sequestration deal which is threatening 2,000 jobs in virge and our readyness. what has the senate done? absolutely nothing. no budgets for the last three and a half years. a lot of members of congress shouldn't get paid if they don't make aprop relations. what does president obama and opponent jim mccain say? we need to raise taxes. that's the right reaction because that would mean fewer jobs. and i want to be real clear. the 200,000 men and women in virge whose jobs are at risk who serve in our armed forces should never be used as a

political bargaining chip to race taxes on small business owners. [applause] >> the best way to raise revenues is with a fliving economy where businesses are prossspering and people are getting pay checks not youring about extension of unemployment benefits. so folks there is a lot at stake five days from now. november 6 it is our generation's ran day view with dest any. i believe that the people of virginia here in the richmond area, the central virginia area, especially since we're here at doswell farms where the greatest history resource in all was born. we want to be like secretary i can't and you all are going to lead the way for a triple crown

victory where we re-elect our leader eric cantor for a representative. [applause] where with our win in the u.s. senate we change the leadership in the united states senate to common sense conserve vative. and the key to the winer's circle, mitt romney in the white house. [applause] let me turn it over to our lead horse in virginia. a great friend and leader. and one of the outstanding best governors in the whole united states of america, our friend and great leader one that is great for all of us and he needs a friend in washington. let me present to you our great

governor, bob mcdonl. >> good afternoon. thank you george and ladies and gentlemen are you ready to elect mitt romney and paul ryan to save jobs in virginia? [applause] are you ready to get the greatest country on earth out of debt and back to work by electing mitt romney? [applause] i thought so. well you look all dried out and recovered from the store and god blessed us by giving us a glancing blow. what great work done by our first responders and government officials around the state. we are blessed to have done so well here in virginia. [applause] you know a month ago president

obama came to virge and said if you don't win virginia, i won't be president of the united states. will you help him keep that promise? [applause] we love having mitt romney here. but we like having president obama and joe biden here because they say the barnest things in virginia, don't they? >> like bind saying it's great to be here in north carolina. and president obama saying he had a business but somebody else built that. does that sound like somebody who understands free enterprise and the american dream? fortunately, we have a candidate who does. i'm glad to have followed george allen. he was a great reform governor and he will be a great united

states senator to help turn this country around. [applause] i'm so glad to see all you veterans here and all oh of you that understand the coal industry, thank you for coming. and all of you that understand freed new mexico america is not free. for centuries it's taken properties like you to make our -- pate yots like you to make our country great. >> my grandfather came in search of the american dream. he worked in a factory in massachusetts and 100 years later his grandson is governor. isn't it a great country? but unfortunately that great american dream -- and all of you have stories like that maybe brought you here today in

search of a better future for your kids and grandkids. that american dream is under attack right now. all you have to do is look at 23 million people that have no access to the dream because they can't find a job. 8% unemployment rate. 16 trillion in debt. no president in american history has increased the debt as much as this president, $16 trillion, no budget and a debt that would go to $24 trillion in four years. the highest on food stamps and the heart ache of people because they can't find a job and access the american dream. one in six americans riving in poverty. no plan for the country that's blessed with the greatest energy resources in all the

world. ladies and gentlemen, we need a change in this country and we need it now. [applause] this president has been a bystander now for a year while the sequestration defense cuts that threaten to devastate in the words of secretary panetta devastate the military at a time our men and women are serving in a war in askg afghanistan and this president refuses to lead and pass the bill to cut out these defense cuts, refuses to take a stand on men and women in uniform right now. only mitt romney will make that change and that's why we need a president that will protect the united states military in a time of war. [applause] despite all these new taxes and

regulations and unfunded man dates and interference from washington, virginia is blessed with having the lowest unemployment rate in the southeast, but think how much better that would be if we had somebody in the white house that understood job creation and free enterprise and the american dream. boy, would we be in good shape. we're trying to be the first shate on the east coast to drill offshore. we're trying to make that coal industry in virginia thrive. this president says no. we need mitt romney because he will say necessary to energy jobs in the common wealth of virginia. [applause] so fortunately, fortunately, we have an incredible candidate in mitt romney. let me tell you about the heart of mitt romney. you know people by their vision. in fact the scrip chures say

for lack of vision the people per risch. but with vision the people prosper and for new prosperity in america we need a new vision. this is a man that turned massachusetts around with a democratic legislature and cut $3.5 billion out of their budget without racing taxes. this man turned the olympics around. this is a man that created jobs in the private sector because he understands small business. this is a man of greath faith and great character that -- grate character -- great character that builds a great america. all the has been, always will. >> so while we have a surplus of rhetoric and a surplus of

debt. fortunately, we have a leader that will say what we need to do that has a specific plan for getting the middle class back to work with energy and small business and trade and deficit reduction, specific ideas to turn this country around to replace the excuses and the lack of results we're getting in washington. so ladies and gentlemen, let me close with this, five days, and i know a lot of you have been working hard. in fact, you've been working hard since 2009. thank you for giving eric cantor three new congressmen in 2010 to change the united states congress. thank you for 201e6789 thanks for what you have done over the last nine months for paul ryan and mitt romney and george

allen and eric cantor. but thanks most of all for what you're going to do the next five days. there are still people that haven't decided mitt romney is the best guy for the united states of america. so you can knock on doors, you can send out your e-mails, you can still make a lot of phone calls. you can tweet or use facebook. if you don't know how, there are kids up here that are 10 years old and they can show you how to do it. you can talk to people at church on sunday or at work on monday, there are thousands of people here. make five phone calls, ask them to make five phone calls, that will be 50,000 people and mitt romney will be the next president of the united states thoonks you the common wealth of virginia. ladies and gentlemen it's now my pleasure to introduce to you my former seat mate in the

house of delegates, eric cantor. he has done a great job. he understands the limited government works best for the people of the united states. he's the champion for the free enterprise system. so please welcome, our great leader from the united states congress, your majority leader,, eric cantor. >> [applause] >> thank you. thaurning very much. -- thank you very much. i want to thank all of you for your hard work which and i know it seems like an awful long time we've been at . this but it's just five more days, five more days. are you ready to win in five days? [applause] we are here today because all of us are concerned about our

country. and i know it speaks to the moral fabric of who we are that while this state of ours and others certainly to the north have endured a ho risk storm that we are resslute that we came together, we came with compassion in caring for our fellow citizens and we are here today in that spirit because we carry about virginia and we know that virginia cares about america. that's why we're going to elect george allen to the senate and mitt romney as our next president. [applause] niffs an airport the other day and i met a man who is a home building er and he told me he is a home builder but he had a take a job as a cook in a

restaurant because he couldn't find a position to match his skills. we can do better for him, we can do better for the tense of ,000 -- tens of thousands of people who are looking for that job to match their skills and some who have been forced to take one just to make ends meet and pay the bills and even worse some who have knots a job at all. we can do better and we are going to do better under mitt romney's leadership. [applause] mitt romney is the only candidate throughout this entire campaign that has had a specific plan to create jobs, to get america back to work and start growing our economy. and there is no doubt abet, we will win with that message here

in virge. and i know we'll win with your efforts because they're going to pay off. now look. we all know that the results that have come out of washington over the last four years have not been the kind of results that the people of virginia deserve or that americans deserve which and i can tell you this country is in desperate need of a leader who understandses first of all that reasonable people can disagree. i always say i've been married almost 23 years. my wife and i don't agree on everything. we've been married and we've raised our kids and we know how to set differences aside and know how to come together. that's what this country is built upon is the spirit of cooperation of understanding that we've been blessed to be part of this incredible country. well, mitt romney has proven

that he's been able to operate in the most difficult environments. as the governor just said he was the governor of probably the most democratic state in the country. but as a republican he sat done with people of different views and said let's figure out what we can agree on, what we can do. now this country has a lot of problems. we're spending money we don't have and that's got to end. we know mitt romney knows how to balance budgets. we know mitt romney knows how to fix the problems that are facing this country. [applause] so we need a leader like that in washington. i can tell you from experience the man in the white house has fallen short on his job of uniting people and pointing this country in a direction that offers us all hope.

he has failed in that effort. i can also tell you we have tens of thousands of people in virginia who dedicate their life in uniform. many veterans know what i speak because we thank you and virge has hey rich heritage in playing a huge role in the defense of this country and the promotion of its national security. and thank you for that [applause] as governor's allen and mcdonnell said before this president has failed to offer a solution to avoid the defense cuts that potentially could threaten our position as a global military power and could certainly threaten the commitment and the jobs of tens of thousands of people in

virginia dedicated to the defense industry. mitt romney has a plan that will get our country back on track, will strengthen our military and will send the signal to our allies that we stand for freedom and we stand with those who stand with us. [applause] so without further ado, please join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, governor romney. [applause] ♪ ♪

>> wow wharks an entrance. it's kind of hard to upstage bob mcdonnell but i try. thank you. what a welcome. virginia, we're going to win on november 6. i tell you that. now i want to thank a few

people. thank you ricky for entertaining us and i appreciate his support and all the work he's doing. and thank you to all the leaders in your state. you just saw the governor bob mcdonnell. is the lieutenant governor here? [applause] >> where is the attorney general? is he here too? there he is down there. thank you ken. i appreciate you being here. eric cantor, you just heard from. thank you. and the next great senator from the great common wealth of virginia none other than governor george allen. [applause] i also twoopt mention the fact

that a lot of people in this country are having a hard time right now particularly those hit by the hurricane fand you have a few extra dollars send them to the relief organizations and that can make a difference in the lives our our fellow citizens. it's part of who we are as americans to step forward when people need our help and this is one of those times. so thank you for the help have you provided and the help you're going to provide. [applause]

>> this is an election of great consequence and i think you understand that. i know there are some people who believe we should stay on the current course and things are going find. i don't believe status quo is right for america. i believe america needs real change and we're going to give it to the american people. [applause] president obama's campaign slogan is forward. i think a better term would be forewarned. we've seen the results of the last four years. we've got a lot of people who are hurting and think don't want to see another four years like the last. do you want to see another four years with 23 million americans

struggling for a good job. do you want to see more taxes or higher gasoline prices? do you want to see four more years with washington in gridlock? i know the president wants to see four more years and that's his chant but our chant is this -- five more days, five more days. [applause] now the president has been trying to find a new idea because he knows people aren't happy what what has happened over the last four years. we had three debates and the president wasn't able to put forward a plan to get the economy going. he just says he's going to do more of the same. he came out with a brother sure but no new ideas to get the economy going. then he came up with an idea he's going to create a

department of business. i just don't think another cabinet chair is going to create the jobs america needs. so i'm going to make sure we get a president who understand business instead of hiring someone in the cabinet. his campaign seems to have been reduced to smaller and smaller things. as people are facing more and more challenges and he's been looking for agenda other than just forward, more of the same. for a while there he was talking about saving characters on sesame street then it was word games with my name that he was playing then he got anxious and went out there and attacked me day in and day out. attacking me does not create agenda for him. we have a plan to get this economy going. we're going to put it in place

to help the american people. [applause] i fundamentally believe in the american people. i believe in america. i believe that america is going to come back if we do what we've done from the beginning which is to unleash the freed ms of the american people and let them pursue their dreams. so my plan is five steps to get this economy going. number one take full advantage of our coal, our oil gas and renewables. this is kind of our economy's ace in the hole right now because someone discovered not just how to drill in the earth but how to go who are santly and tap into packet pockets of oil and gas. by virtue of that technology we

can have north earn energy independence within eight years. and that means jobs. that means jobs here in the energy sector as well as in manufacturing. manufacturing uses a lot of energy which and energy here will be abun dent and inexpensive so manufacturing is going to come back. and by the way energy jobs and manufacturing jobs they create a lot of jobs. this is a big plus for us and taking full advantage of it is going to get us working again. that's number one. number two, just a little background. we're the most productive nation of any nation on earth. now productive means when you add up all the things that are made in america including all the services that are sold in america, you add them up and divide them by the number of workers in our work force, the

out put per person is greater than other nations. what that means is trade is good for us. so opening up new markets for trade and selling our goods in latin america which is a huge market, we could expand there. i twoont make trade work for america by opening up markets and i also want to make sure that if nations cheat and steel jobs by not playing by the rules, we hold them accountable. that's what i want to do with china. we're going to make trade work for america. now number three -- number one is energy, number two is trade pped and number three is making sure the workers have the skills they knead. we have 47 programs in government reporting to eight different agencies. think of all the durecrats. i'd like to take those dollars and bundle them up and say virginia you run your program

the way you think is best for your people. [applause] and i want to fix our schools too for the coming generation. i want our kids to have the skills they need as well. i think it's bad that the nation that invented public education is performing in the bottom third of education accomplishment. it's unacceptable. i won't go through all of what you have to do. it's all about teachers and hiring the best and brightest, promoting the best and making sure they're well compensated. the key is teachers. and we got to put the kids at the top, the parents and the teachers and the teachers union is going to have to go behind and fut kids first. [applause] that's number three. number four and this may not immediately connect with why the budget has anything to do with jobs but let me tell you

if you're an sbe preneurothinking about risking your life savings to open a business or a company investing in billions of dollars in factries in america. you're not going to do that if you think we're on the road to greece. and that's the road we're on. so i will commit to you i will do nevering my power to cut federal spending and cap it and get us on track to a balanced budget so we can create more jobs here. [applause] and number five, i want to champion small business. i want to make it easier for small business -- i was just a few moments ago at bill's

barbecue in town here. they used of the 200 employees. the owner of bill's just told me she's going to close her doors. and i said why. and she said taxes, federal regulations and then she also said obama care. taxes regulations and obamacare, those three things are crushing small businesses across america. you realize -- let me take you through the calculation on tacks. if you're a small business, a successful one. you can calculate how much you're going to give to the government. i smoke to a man and he calculated how much they send to government. with federal income tax 35%, payroll tax, state income tax, state sales tax, real estate tax, gasoline tax. they said over 50% of what

their business makes they send to government. he said think about this. when you start a small business your chance of succeeding is not real high. the failure rate ob on smull business is pretty significant. if and if you succeed the government wants more than half of what you make. so businesses are less likely to get started and hire people. so i want to bring the tax rates down. the president wabts to raise tax on small business. i would not raise taxes on small businesses or on middle class america. we've also got to get regulators to see that their job is in helping businesses not killing them. big business can handle regulations by the way. it slows them down but they can handle it because they have all the lawyers in the world. you got to make it easier for

small business. obama care is one of the things i heard. obama care the cost per employ was back breaking and they couldn't finances it. so one thing we've got to do if we want to keep jobs is get rid of obama care and replace it. [applause] now by the way, let me just ask the leader over here. leader cantor, when was the last time you met with the president on the economy or jobs or budget? >> almost a year. >> we'll have to go back and check the calendar. for me to get the things done i'm going to have to reach across the aisle and meet with good democrats who love america just like you love america. and there are good democrats like that. i'm going to meet regularly

with democrat and republican leaders. i won't do that once a year. i will do that frequently. we have to work together. these are critical times. this is an election of consequence. this is an election where i think we're not just going to shape the country for four years but for a generation. so it's important we have a president who understands how to work across the aisle. i was elected in the common wealth of massachusetts. we have a few democrats in my state. my legislature is 85% democrat or was when i was governor, 85%. we had a multibillion $budget gap. we didn't go to work attacking each other. we went to work trying to do the people's business. he said the campaign is over. we cut state spending, we tute cut it. we balanced the budget every year. a $3 billion budget gap became

a $2 billion fund. this has to happen in washington. [applause] i want you to know i am excited about the prospects for our country. i am not down in the dumps. i know we face real challenges and concerns but the american people are creative, can do, hardworking. the american people have what it takes to come out of these tough times if we got the right person leading our nation. [applause] and if we pull together. i've seen the greatness of the american spirit time and again. over my lifetime i've seen something about the great character of the american heart. i have a favorite story i've been telling across the country about a time when i served as a boy scout leader.

we have a few here. thank you for helping in that program. i was at the court of honor room. boy scout court of honor is where you get awards. i was seated at the end of the table next to the american flag that was there. and the person who was speaking at the podium was the scout master from colorado. and he spoke about how his troop wanted to have a very special american flag. so they bought one with gold tassels around the outside. they sent it to the capital and it was flown there. they contacted nasa to take it's on the space shuttle. he said the boys were so proud knowing it was going up and

they saw it explode on tv. and he contacted nasa to see if they found any remnant of the flag. nothing. he called for months still nothing. then he was reading an article and they mention t something about a flag. hell called nasa and they said we have a presentation to make to you and your boys. so they came together and they were presented with this container and he said we opened the container and there was our flag in perfect condition. [applause] and then he said that's it on the flag pole next to mr. romney. and i reached over and pulled out the flag and it was as if electricity was running through my arm. because i thought about the people on that mission and thought about the people in our

space program that put themselves in harm's way recognizing they are promoting learning, pioneering for us. they have give of themselves to others. our men and women in uniform give and have given of themselves for us to protect our freedom to promote our prosperity and way of life. there are so many heroes in our society. it's part of the american experience to live for something bigger than yourself. i think we're a nation of heroes. they say being a hero is not being bigger than life, it's being bigger than yourself. and americans live for things bigger than themselves. i think of all the single moms who right now are scrimping and saving to make sure they have a good meal to put on the table at the end of the day for their children. my sister is in her 70's and she has eight children.

and the first seven are all married with children of their own t. seventh was born down syndrome. her husband passed away. linda dwotes her time to her son to make sure he lives as abun dent life as he possibly can. she's a hero to me. [applause] i think of all the couples across america who have decided not to exchange gift this is year so their kids can have more christmas. i think of all the dads and moms working two jobs so they can buy the clothes for their kids the other kids are wearing at school so they won't stand out. we're a nation of big hearts who care about things bigger than ourselves, our families, our parents, our community, our

schools, our churches, our state, our nation. it's who we are as a people. and this is a critical time for us. i know the people of virginia have very clear eyes. you can see the consequence of this election. i know as americans you have full hearts. there was a tv show sometime ago about a fictional football team that on the way out to the gridiron they would touch assign as they walked out the door it said clear eyes, full hearts can't lose. and i'm convinced that we're going to come together on november 6 with your clear eyes and full hearts, we cannot lose, we've got to bring back america and keep this nation strong and build an economy that puts our people to work that guarantees a bright future for our children. i love you. i thank you. we're going to win with your help. thank you. thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute]

♪ ♪ >> presidential candidate mitt romney wrapping up the second of two events in virginia today. we're opening up our phone lines for a few minutes to get your thoughts on why you support your candidate. if you're a supporter of president obama the number to call is -- if you support mitt romney call 202-585-3886. you can tweet also.

one of the events we're covering today five days out from the election day on tuesday november 6. and our prime time election coverage gets under way at 8:00 p.m. eastern on next tuesday. let's go to our first caller. caller: i support mitt romney because he has a clear vision for the future and he seems to speak his mind where obama seems to dodge the issues and i think it's important that we uncover this scandal on the cover up in benghazi and try to get the message out and let people know mitt romney is an honest man and deserves a job. host: host: why do you support the president? caller: i've been on the fence for a while and listening to president obama, he's a clear winner. he has my vote. i don't trust mitt romney

because he never tells the truth on anything which and i cannot support a candidate like that. and go obama 2012. host: portland kect connect on our others line. do you have a candidate you've selected or are you notgoing to? >> i was undecided for a long time, but i am going to support, without any doubt, and i did not before, president obama. i have listened to a lot of that romney and i first want to tell you that most of my family reside in massachusetts. many of them reside in boston and cambridge. he was a one-term governor in boston. he does not brag too much about what he did in boston and the

people in boston are not bragging either. >> which is your take -- what is your take? >> the one president obama has. >> their massachusetts with their state plan. they have their own plan because they are working people. they didn't like it in massachusetts and they didn't like it countrywide. but they did the same thing in boston. that is why he was a one-term president. i listened to him today. he has all of the plant and he is going to be the merkel person. listen -- i have an income of under $30,000 a year. i pay more in taxes to a man is sent his money out of the

country because he doesn't want to help pay the kind of taxes i pay because it's wonderful country. >> you said you were on the fence and it sounds like you are pretty firmly in obama's corner. >> i have listened to him. anybody that is me, me, me, i'm the merkel man -- he is bragging too much. >> we go next to a supporter of mayor romney in the south carolina. >> -- and do as a favor and make sure that you new york television. >> i am all the way with romney. of it is the allies obama puts out. i will never ever voted democrat again.

that bosnia, i can't believe it was swept under the table. >> are you talking about that gussy it? -- are you talking about been gauzy? >> yes. seems like everything obama says is a lie. i voted for him last time and i made a grave mistake. >> when was it you made that change to mitt romney? when did you decide to vote for mayor romney? >> i would have voted for anybody but i think he is an honest, bright, a decent person and a businessman. >> this is just north of richmond, the second of three stops. president obama also has three stops today. he has las vegas later this afternoon and we will wrap up at

the university of colorado at 9:00 tonight. go ahead. >> i am supporting president obama. i think people don't understand halt -- people to understand all he has done as president. he has had to do a lot in the house because the republicans, they try to stop a lot of the things he tries to pass. he says he is going to come out with the health care and he has and a lot of the things he says he is going to do, he does. there aren't democrats in the house that can really support him and the republicans are not supporting him. i feel he has been making it work because he has extended

unemployment benefits. i don't know if people remember that. if you were not working, he extended unemployment benefits. he understands that people need jobs -- >> did you have to take advantage of some of those extended unemployment benefits? >> i just started because i just lost my job in june. i'm just starting to see unemployment benefits. with the stimulus package and doesn't understand that and he had to admit to that but there is a lot of things obama wants to do and have done but you have to take into account he has a lot of people trying to stop him

from going further. >> we appreciate your call. tammy is next up on our independent line. who are you supporting and why? >> i live in a philadelphia. i am a single mother and i have been here for 23 years. i'm a single mother with two children. i have always been working all my life. i want to tell anyone out there who is the first generation that comes to the united states, i feel very shameful about america. i would like to ask any woman who are single mothers and first generation and have children as may, please vote for mitt romney. until now, my kids are [indiscernible] but i know a lot of women out there who have part-time jobs.

we can have more income to have the children's rights so they can have the future. thank you. >> to gary in florida. >> i voted for obama and i see everything that has been going on. i am disabled. this obamacare thing is hitting me. it has made a difference in my prescriptions. it has made a difference in the care that i received. the thing that i see most, i grew up and i was a military brat.

obama was kind of vacant. it to kim 50 days to react. he did not want help from other countries to take care of the gulf coast. it hit florida really hard. then that you had all the thing in libya and he decided to take off and go to vegas the next day. there's a lot of speculation about where they in the situation watching it and i think he took advantage of sandy -- and i'm not saying that in a sarcastic manner. he stood up and it finally acted like a president but a week before the election? where was he when everything else was going on that he should have been present and then the president and took care of things. shown as he was commander-in- chief rather than just sitting around and playing basketball and going on vacations. >> thank you.

next up is a democrat supporting president obama in gary, indiana. >> how are you? i am glad to be on. i support president obama because i am an ex mormon and i know what they teach you. you have to be secretive. they teach you the bishop is they got in your life. he is the only one who can give you a blessing. >> how long were you in the mormon faith? >> several years. you go to the head of the organization's house and he gives you a blessing. but the bishop, that bishop tells you everything to do. you can't do nothing without that bishop. >> that is your primary reason?

>> romney was a bishop for 10 years. he told people what he could and couldn't do. but we're seeing of video of president obama. the headline with that appearance -- obama makes a pitch for unity after sandy. let's go to milwaukee and hear from others. i'm asking you why do you support your candidate and what do you want to hear from your candidate. >> i just want to thank you for your station. stations where one can actually get away from the mainstream media. >> i watched the debates, i just watched the virginia --

eye and as other black caller that called come you don't support obama i guess racially -- let's see that issue -- you can see this guy has an agenda. all these lands on the table, you don't vote because the sky is black. you can see the passion -- this guy is someone who loves his country. if you took obama, he would fail. that is the fact because mitt romney has a vision for this country. use what you have to give it what you want. this idea of global thing -- you

don't want to promote america but china and the rest, we -- really look at this guy. he is laying out his plan. it makes him look at like it is not real and there are very few plants that serve -- very few blacks that support mitt romney. the media tries to make it look like the blacks are all for obama. >> how did you vote in 2008? >> everybody wanted change and everybody went for obama. >> you voted for president obama in 2008? >> yes. we were deceived. you can't fool everybody at the same time. >> we do want to check twitter -- a couple of responses. this was in response to an

earlier call from connecticut -- massachusetts records started with massachusetts in deficit and and in surplus. another view -- president obama wants to bring a assault weapon ban. how can you vote for someone that based on an ad blitz? it just the issues. welcome to the conversation. why do you support mitt romney? i think i have lost martin. ed ingo to pennsylvania point pleasant -- south carolina -- >> west virginia. >> how much snow did you get?

>> it just a little covering. i'm gonna romney supporter. i support mayor ronnie because he has a plan for this country. he lays it out to the people when he is talking to them and we need a plan and he has the best plan between the two candidates. i feel you have to be a doer and i think mitt romney is a doer. he has been a proven winner in everything he has been involved with. >> you get the last word. thank you. we appreciate all the calls. you can continue the conversation online at facebook @ on twitter. lot more political coverage and live coverage coming up this afternoon. in 45 minutes, we will be live with a discussion looking at the next administration and how that

will shape u.s. policy toward asia. as we continue to bring you the nation's racist, this is from rhode island -- the democrat facing brandon dollar b, the republican challenger perry -- brandon authority. president obama wraps up in colorado tonight and we'll bring it to yet 9:00 on c-span. president obama was briefed on hurricane sandy by that fema administrator and the head of the red cross briefed reporters on the status of hurricane sandy and the cleanup procedures. >> good morning, everybody. although life-saving operations, search and rescue, the first passes have been completed but we are still very much in

response mode. i would call it pumping operations, getting down to the areas that are hardest hit and making sure we have a presence and have reached into the communities that are hit. yesterday, as things began to move, the primary focus was the search and rescue teams. that has shifted over to get more of what you traditionally see. this is not just the federal team. our volunteer agencies and fifth base -- a faith-based communities working through this storm. that is the state we are in. we still have a pretty significant snow that is ending but that is very much a response activity. primarily in new jersey, new

york, and connecticut, we are very much moving into the mass care part of this disaster and that is oftentimes going to be driven by the power restoration and getting people's power back and water back. also recognizing there were homes flooded, damaged, and destroyed and no matter what we do with power, there are folks who will meet longer-term assistance. this is a full team effort and i'm going to turn it over to my partners at the american red cross to update you on their activities. >> thank you. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. the american red cross is in communities providing aid and comfort to folks who have been impacted. we have been there since before the storm made landfall. we pushed our leadership teams in and we always pre deploy our

hurricane provisions before the storm hits. back we are open in nine states but we are quickly ramping up feeding operations in places like long island and many other places that have no power. feeding and sheltering will be our primary focus as we move into the next 24 to 48 hours. this is a frustrating time as we wait for power. we know how frustrating that can be. we want folks to know we're doing everything possible to make sure communities have the help they need. to that extent, more than 7000 people spent wednesday night in red cross shelters in nine states and more than 100 shelters in new jersey, new york, pa., connecticut, rhode island, connecticut, -- dollar and more.

there are people in shelters in these states. when it comes to feeding, we have deployed 12 mobile kitchens through partnerships now capable of at least 200,000 meals a day. we have shipped a third of a billion shelf stable meals to the area, serving nearly 165,000 meals and our feeding operation is ramping up in a big way. 230 of our emergency response vehicles that can be mobile distributing meals, water and smacks all the ground. that is fully two-thirds of our fleet in the response area. we have 3300 disaster workers, volunteers and staff from all over the country mobilizing. we are bringing red cross responders in as well.

that number will grow in the coming days as we mobilize more and more community volunteers to assist in our efforts. we have deployed 50 trailers of relief supplies into the arianna and more help is on the way. we are working hard to make sure to get people -- to make sure people get what they needed access is still very difficult in many areas. we are expanding our reach into more and more communities as officials tell us it is safe. i want to finish by telling you the nation's blood supply is an issue in that nearly 360 red cross blood dries have been canceled because of this storm. we suddenly see a dip because of the blood drive and that represents a loss of as many as 12,000 blood and platelet

products. we're asking people who are eligible to please give blood. schedule a blood donation if you can. we are urging folks to give to the american red cross. as fema has been saying all along, we are asking people to check on their neighbors. if you can safely get out and check on your neighbors, this is an important time for neighbors to help neighbors and communities to help communities. we are active in the us state governments and a very active and the national response and regional response coordination, working closely with colleagues who have been doing an awesome job in this response. i will turn it back over to you for questions and answers. >> please keep in mind we have a lot of folks on the call.

one question, no follow-ups and could we please have the first question? >> the first question is from bloomberg news. >> i know you are still in response mode, but could you talk about what arrangements you are making on temporary housing? will there be any trailers involved? >> probably not. we have activated our transitional shelter. we worked very closely and we have 9000 people and that is going up as people can't stay there. we are working to provide assistance directly to get people into hotels and motels and assess who is going to need long-term assistance and get them rental assistance. i don't have the last numbers yet, but we were over a million

dollars last night that have gone on to the street. this is the process where people call fema and we get the information and assistance. those are funds being distributed and that is how much housing assistance has been provided. we are going to focus on housing assistance. we will get to that but we want to focus on the state -- giving him -- given the rental market as power is starting to come back on, we don't see the need for any type of trailers. we think we can provide all the assistance through traditional rental systems and we are working very closely with many communities in a lower manhattan. there were quite a few properties of the local housing

authorities that were impacted and we're working hard to assess those and determine how many will have damages that need to be repaired and what additional assistance may be needed while those facilities are repaired. >> thank you. next question. >> i have two questions three >> one question, please. >> i am trying to find out if the new york governor and senators from new jersey wanting fema to pay 100% of the cost in response and recovery. will that only be for those two states or how does that work? >> currently, the way the statute is written, we can recommend cost share adjustments based on impact. traditionally, the impacts are shared.

we have adjusted cost share based on magnitude disasters previously where it has exceeded cost on a per capita basis and made of recommendations to reduce cost share to 90%. >> what about now? >> there has been no assistant -- assessment of total damages. we are in response mode and this is something what will be needed later as far as cost share adjustments will be based on impact and the numbers we have, we are not even at the point of saying what kind of total bill this is going to be. we are working right now in response -- these are reimbursement programs, so you are talking about reimbursement after the fact. we will have federal support and the president has directed we do those in support of state and

local government, particularly for pumping operations and transportation operations and getting the power systems back on. >> new jersey's senators have put out a press release saying fema has agreed to 100%. >> this is what we were talking about. the president has directed we provide increased assistant, 100% providing assistance to transportation for 10 days. that does not impact or effect the remaining disaster assistance which was still at a cost share of the 75-25. that is getting technical and i think we could follow up with you on that, but 100% was not for the entire disaster. there were very specific federal missions and support in

the next 10 days. >> thank you very much. with that "new york times." i'm curious how much was in need disaster relief fund? there are reports there are as much as $7 billion. could you clarify how much is available? >> you know under continuing resolution? they do allocations based on what you expect to spend in that timeframe. the allocation is based on how much carryover we have from last year and how much has been allocated. these are considered know-your money's. year'st get a full allegation, we get -- allocation, there is money that can be freed up but it has been allocated in this timeframe. this is mumbo jumbo and it kind of gets confusing, but it is based upon the full year and we

only get an apportioned amount that can be adjusted. they are already looking at that. >> thank you. >> you had mentioned responders are coming from other countries. wondering if you know how many responders have come from other countries and where they are coming from? >> i don't have the exact number, but the mexican red cross has been activated and i don't know where they are at, but they bring a large medical emergency contingent to support us and i believe the canadian red cross has been deployed. we received offers of assistance from other countries and we will determine those as we determine with the needs are. in the case of mexico and canada, the society's work very

closely together. it's not uncommon to support each other even in small operations and we do a lot of collaborations with those countries. it is much easier than many of the other countries. we will go across borders with them and we had those countries responding to hurricane isaac, for example. they brought us between 15 and 20 responders. and we do so just to make sure we have that muscle memory always available. tore not anywhere close overwhelmed in terms of our own red cross capacity. we are not anywhere near capacity. just as part of what we do, we exercise other volunteer components and up regularly exercise with each other. i don't want anyone to get the sense we are overwhelmed and we

need support from other countries. >> the next question is from the philadelphia inquirer. >> can you tell us when and where fema's disaster recovery centers will open on the ground? >> in partnering with the crisis >> i can do better. in partnering with google crisis maps we already have disaster centers in there and you can click and see where they come out. we're working with the state of new york and new jersey on where they would like those to be. we will probably start out with mobile sites. until that is done, we probably will have our teams going out into the neighboring and start our initial fact check with people and make sure that they have information that is registered and they have answered the initial set of questions.

we will put that information out of press releases. in partnership with google crisis maps, they will map in real time, all of that information and we will make sure that information is updated. >> governor cuomo says about 1 million meals and bottled water will be brought into lower manhattan and other hard-hit sections of new york, brooklyn and the rockaways. do you have a timetable for when that will show up? are there specific distribution centers being set up? how will that be handled? >> i will have to refer back to the city and the coordinating officer. they have better visibility. i will have our press people hope you up on the timing of the trucks and the timing of the distribution point. that is being built in conjunction with the unified team and the federal officers there in new york.

>> i want to add that efforts are coordinated with red cross and fema with the cities and states. we do not operate unilaterally. we operate together. our operations are already beginning. we are pushing into places like staten island, other communities that you're hearing about, hoboken and others. we are pushing hundreds of thousands of meals. we will have the capacity of new york city alone to be serving up to half a million meals per day. but again, closely coordinated in locations with the cities, states, and the fema regions. >> can you update me specifically with what fema and the u.s. army corps of engineer assets are being sent to alleviate the impact particularly at the jersey shore? >> last night, we had several generators installed. it looks like we will be up to 70 generators installed. we are doing assessments to see what it will take to get the port facilities back up and running. there was quite a bit of transportation impact. we're working with the u.s. dot. although there has been a lot of mutual aid to bring in, more utility crews from surrounding areas as far south and west as california, those cruz becher

drive in and get their relatively fast have driven in. but we still have crews on the west coast that have 3-5 days transit time. there is also concerned that with the fire season, if they could not get back for their fire season was that gets going, that they would not be able to send their resources. there is also aircraft. there are teams and equipment that will be airlifted from california, west coast teams to support this response. but also, understand that teams were already moving well before sandy hit.

teams have been called from the midwest and south. if it makes sense that they can drive there faster than flying, then they are driving in. for those that need to, they're flying in this afternoon. >> i am wondering how the contacting process is going. some contracts are already in place. will there be proposals for other types of aid? does fema have enough money with the $3.6 billion? especially when they are only authorized for $3.8 billion. >> yes, we will be contacting for more. but you will have to go back to

a lot of different agencies end renegotiate contracts. there will not be no-bid contracts. secondly, we will not run out of money in the response. the flood insurance is a separate account. we're looking at projected claims there. we're working closely with what would be the operators of the fund. but the drf is a separate account, and strictly for flood costs, and not for insurance claims payouts. we may need more we get into the damage assessments phase, but as it is in the response phase, we continue to respond with no limiting factors. >> next question. >> good morning. could you tell me whether the disaster declaration will be expanded to more counties in new jersey today?

>> yes, we added on two more counties this morning. and we continue to work with gov. christie on the impact. there are many areas where the majority is power outages. we're also looking at damage to homes. the two that were added this morning was -- the president added somerset and bergen counties. we will do for their assessment and determine what the impact is. the problem will be the homes damaged or destroyed, not just power outages. will also be looking at longer- term recovery costs at other assistance programs and will be looking at other counties that have not been declared yet. >> next question.

>> i came in late, so i may be repeating something that someone else asked. i wanted to know about adding additional counties in new york. and also, an explanation from your side of governor cuomo's request for 100% federal share. what would that be 100% of? and is congressional action needed for that? >> right now, we have the boroughs that were impacted. again, as they assess damages, additional counties could be added on. one of the things that we're concerned about is flooding in land and upstate, but fortunately, that did not seem to be as bad. right now, we are dealing with the storm surge damages. as the governor requests those, we will work those.

as far as the 100%, we will reimburse requests. it is 75% federal and 25% state and local. fema policy recommends to the president that it would be appropriate to go to 90% federal. when you reach a threshold of about $131 per capita of a state population, it is not policy to go 100% across all categories. although we do make recommendations for very specific, lifesaving life sustaining situations, as the president did last night. progress has traditionally acted with where the need is greater than 90%. and through congressional action, a appropriations language has acted 100%. if you go back to hurricane katrina, congressional action directive that hurricanes katrina, rita, and wilma were

directed to be 100% of recovery -- recovery costs. >> director fugate, you have given us the facts and figures, but i would like to know how satisfied you are with the operation. is it going according to expectations and needs? what needs to be done? where are the gaps? >> i am not happy. i'm not letting anyone here think that we are doing good. you've got survivors out there and they do not care how much you've got in staging. they do not care how many press releases you have issued. they just want to know when their power is going back on and whether you can help them

get a place to stay. i met a young man who is 15 years old who was taking care of his mom. she is in a wheelchair. she has been in that wheelchair for several days. their home was flooded and they are renters. they needed help. sometimes the only time i'm able to get satisfaction is that we were able to register them with fema and get them a place to stay. i will not be satisfied until everybody that needs housing assistance house that assistance. i will not be satisfied until we have got the resources in hands of survivors. and i will not be satisfied until the power is back on. i am the most impatient, hard to please person in the world when it comes to making sure that survivors are the first and foremost of all of our response activities. if we have not gotten to people that are hard to get to, then

today is the day that i have said that it is imperative that we are reaching people, that supplies are reaching people. in any disaster, there are always things that will happen that you have to deal with. you can't always anticipate or prevent everything, but i do not want problems festering or laundering. i want them addressed and responded to. >> operator, we have time for one more question. >> good morning. this is a question for mr. shymanski. it's going back to the issue of the assistance from canada and mexico, i wonder if he would elaborate about the mexican delegation. are they currently on u.s. soil? how many of those people are involved? who will foot the bill for these people?

and what states are they working on? >> i can answer a few of those, but certainly, not all of them. i believe right now we are looking at 15 to 20 from the mexican red cross, but also evaluating whether there might be a need for more. the specialized skills that the mexican group brings to us include highly trained medical personnel. they provide medicine throughout most of the country, most of the ambulance service, unlike the u.s.. we get highly trained medical staff and we will use them and incorporate them into our own sheltering where we always provide basic medical care for those who have basic medical needs. they of course, are multilingual. they assist us in any place where spanish-speaking assistance is also required. i do not know the exact state of deployment.

we are matching up the needs. it would likely be in places where there is a higher level of special medical shelters. that is probably in new jersey and new york. because, i am not sure. i can tell you that once they get on our soil, we take care of them much like they do when we are supporting them. we work collaboratively and so often that i think we probably cover each other's costs across the board with each other's operation. i cannot give you specifics on that. >> get back to work. you guys asked me questions. i will ask one of you. the folks in the field, you will see stuff that we do not know about. i am asking you to get it to us so that we can fix any problems. the president has continued to

reinforce us and get through any red tape that is slowing us down, and that is why he has directed 100% funding to make sure there is nothing holding that up. i encourage people to register with fema. 1-800-621-fema, or you can go online at disasterassistance.gov. we have had several thousand people register online. 1-800-621-fema. if you see something, let us know. i do not care if you are going to write stories about it. i only care if we find out about people who need help and fix it.

>> you can also go to www.fema.gov to get the latest news. >> this completes today's conference. you may disconnect at this time. we so a meeting about hurricane sandy by fema and red cross. president obama was in wisconsin today. >> for the past few days, all of us have been focused on one of the worst storms in our lifetime. we are humbled by its nature's to stop the power that caused the loss of so many people. our hearts go out to those who have lost their loved ones. we pledge to help those whose lives have been turned upside

down. i was in new jersey yesterday. you really get a sense of how difficult this will be for a lot of people. we have also been inspired these past few days. when disaster shrikes, we see america at its best. all of the petty differences that consume us in normal times seemed to melt away. there are no democrats or republicans. here are just fellow americans. leaders of different parties working to fix what is broken. neighbors helping neighbors cope with tragedy. communities rallying to rebuild. we are all in this together. >> that was present obama in

green bay, wisconsin earlier today. we will have coverage of another one of his campaign stops tonight. it will be at 9:00 eastern here on c-span. >> i regard medicare as a program of promise. i got to see how medicare works at a young age. they paid in throughout their working lives. we have to strengthen and extend its solvency. there is a program to replace traditional medicare with an -- a voucher. shifting costs to seniors, as was the sweetheart deal with the drug companies. >> if medicare is going to go bankrupt in 2024. i do not want medicare to go

bankrupt. i want to fix medicare. i want to make sure seniors in wisconsin are protected. in the year 2000, we have a choice. i have never supported a voucher. i support a program that people who are 50 in the year 2015. employer benefits -- >> through the weekend, watch more debates in key house, senate, and governor races on c- span. >> tonight, we will take you live to iowa's first district for a debate. we will have that at 7:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. the army chief of staff spoke in

washington about the future of the army. he said there is incredible uncertainty across the globe. he talked about how the army is dealing with those threats. >> we have to put that against what i consider to be the operation of strategic environment. here is much discussion about this and there should be a lot of discussion about this. the one thing i know is that there is incredible uncertainty as we look toward the future. every monday, i have my intelligence people come in and brief me. we put a map up. i could spend all whole afternoon talking about it. it covers the entire map of the world. potential areas of instability. what are the drivers of instability that we face?

how are we going to meet and try to reduce the instability that impact our national security, whether it be in the middle east in syria, iran, pakistan, afghanistan? whether it be out in the pacific in china. look at what is going on with the islands in the pacific. a 29-year-old leader in charge of korea. we do not know what he is going to do in the future. what does that mean to the future and security of our country? i do not know. these are questions we have to be prepared to operate in. the other thing i have learned the hard way over the last several years is you have what i call opportunists, who will try

to take advantage of instability in nation-government or failing government. these opportunities may be unpredictable. i always use iraq as an example. there are a lot of opportunists in iraq. they are trying to take advantage of a situation. how does that project itself around the world? what does that mean for us as you look at future conflicts? >> former chief of staff spoke in washington earlier today. you can see his remarks in their entirety tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> i have watched shows on the weekends, interviewing politicians and the politicians are talking about what they are doing in congress and giving their different opinions. >> most recently, i watched the debates. i was in front of my computer

and i was at work and i knew it was on c-span. >> c-span drill down to what is important to the issues. it is not antagonistic or hostile and it does not seem to have an agenda that is trying to push. >> i agree, too. it seems fair. he get the real story and there is not commentary or anything that is negative. >> i go there to get the news and the facts and get more details than headlines and talking points. i want to learn something, not just be entertained. it is not as exciting as cnn or fox. you get the real stories. i love it. >> darryl and mary l ynch watch c-span on comcast.

>> the battle ground states in campaign 2012. a look at the politics in wisconsin. >> we focus on the state of wisconsin. we have the national political reporter for the journal sentinel. a couple of facts we have gathered when it comes to this state. we are looking at cannes electoral votes. we are looking at an unemployment rate of 7.3%. in composite, the president won reelection. can we start with the economics of wisconsin, particularly with that unemployment rates? can you elaborate on the unemployment rate and what it means for the state economically and politically? >> the unemployment rate is below the national rate. if you look at the trends in

terms of job growth, our job growth has been slower than the national average, certainly slower than ohio, which is a battleground state that has had a positive economic trends, better than nevada at the other end of the spectrum. we are in the gray area for president obama. we had a huge, fierce debate over the recall of governor walker. economy and job, a lot of dueling statistics. the bottom-line is a somewhat sluggish job growth, some trends in manufacturing. but nothing that would disqualify the president or insure his reelection. >> looking at individual people in wisconsin, how does the state breakdown when it comes to republicans, democrats, independents?

register by party. you have to look at our political history. wisconsin has voted for a democratic president in every election since ronald reagan. it is a little misleading. it is often extremely close to the country and where it is as a whole. it was closer in 2000 that it was in 2004. there was a big blow of for president barack obama in 2008. democrats tend to dominate the u.s. senate elections. there was a big republican tidal wave in 2010. if a win high the senate seat in november, it will be the first time since the 1950's where we have had two republicans. >> as far as a math is

concerned, if you want to put one up of wisconsin, what areas of the state's trent republican and what areas trend democratic? -- of the state trend republicans and what area trend s democratic? >> the classic bass area of republicans is southeastern wisconsin and arrive milwaukee county. heading up north along the eastern coast of wisconsin as well. a lot of wisconsin really does swing. there are counties in northeastern wisconsin around green bay and in western wisconsin that swung huge for obama in 2008 for obama and then swung back for republicans in

2010. there were counties that barack obama won as president by 10 points. and scott walker won those counties by 30 points. competitive ticket-splitters. those are the county's to watch. -- counties to watch. >> how does early voting factor into the election? >> early voting is less of a factor in wisconsin and other states. we do not have the same tradition. it is technically known as in person absentee voting or mail in voting. the window is narrower now as a result of a change in state law. we do not have registration by party, so when trying to figure out who is winning the early vote, it is more difficult.

the early vote will be significant. >> are voters required to show a photo id? >> on the republicans after they took power in 2010, they tried to do that, but it was held up in court. they will not be required to show i.d. in this election. >> when it comes to how votes i tabulated, what systems are in place and what is used at the state level to make sure those systems are working? >> the optical standard is used in wisconsin. it has proven to be a reliable system and has held up in some lead counsel have had. that is from the virtue of being easy to administer and preserving a paper record.

we have had some close elections and we have had controversies and debates over the voting system and the integrity of the election. i am short those will continue. if it is a close election in 2012 like it was in 2004 and 2000 when the margin for president was under 0.5%. >> do wisconsin citizens generally participate in these events? >> that has been the history of the state. extraordinary levels of turnout. to give you an example, our turnout was higher in 2004 than it was in 2008, partly because of barack obama opened up his big lead at the beginning of the campaign. in 2004, you essentially had

almost 3/4 voting a adults voting in the state. in some parts of the state where turnout is even higher, you talk about 85% or 90% of registered voters who voted. that -- we had a judicial race s spring, a non-partisan race on a spring ballot in which the turnout was higher than in some states for governor in 2010. the fate of wisconsin, and our guest talking about it from "the milwaukee journal- sentinel." >> we're live at georgetown

university in washington for a discussion on u.s. policy toward asia in the next administration. we will hear from the current assistant secretary of state for east asia and men who served in the nixon, ford, reagan, and bush administrations. this is expected to get underway shortly. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> some of the speakers we will hear from, kurt campbell, the

assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs, also former ambassador cristobal hill, winston lord, and richard solomon.

as we wait for these discussions, our coverage later island debateode for the first district of the house. live tonight at 7:30 eastern on c-span. tonight also, president obama holds a rally at the university of colorado at boulder. that is at 9:00 eastern t ime. we will also listen to your phone calls after that rally.

our live coverage at georgetown university is starting a little bit late. we are expecting to hear from a few former ambassadors, also the current assistant secretary of state for eacst asia administration. they will talk about the u.s. asia policy in the next administration.

we are expecting this to start shortly. an update on where the candidates are today. mitt romney campaign in virginia with stops in roanoke, doswell, and virginia beach later on.

president obama made three campaign stops today, one in green bay, wisconsin, then las vegas, and later tonight at the university of colorado at boulder. we will have live coverage at that event at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

>> please welcome to the stage, the president of a georgetown university, victor cha, kurt campbell, assistant secretary of state and former assistant secretary richard solomon, winston lord, and christopher hill. [applause] >> take you for being here and welcome to gaston hall. are here for a special conversation between top diplomats past and present, each

of whom has played a significant role in u.s.-asian relations over the past t-b zero decades, which representatives from the administrations of george h.w. bush to the administration of barack obama. hours guest speakers to they offer their expertise and experience as they look back on their years of service and look forward to the future of u.s.- asia relations. we will for my gratitude to georgetown's asian studies program, school of foreign service, and the korea economic institute who have partnered to bring together some are country's most respected minds on foreign policy and asia. we're deeply grateful to dr. victor cah, professor -- cha, dean lancaster, our dean of the

school of foreign service, and dr. abraham kim for making this event possible. we're honored to have us with us representatives of the department of education, and we thank the department for its recognition of our asian studies program as a title 6 national course center for east asia. it is fitting we gather today for this conversation just days before the presidential collection. the topic of our discussion will take on increasing importance for our president in the next four years. secretaries of -- secretary of state punthillary clinton has written in foreign policy about of growing significance of the u.s.-asian relationship. she wrote, "one of the most important tasks of american statecraft over the next decade will be to lock in a

substantially increased investment, diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise in the asia-pacific region." but as secretary went on to describe the work had. "success requires maintaining and advancing a bipartisan consensus on the importance of the asia pacific to our national interests. we seek to build upon a strong tradition of engagement by presidents and secretaries of state of both parties across many decades." it is the breadth and tenor of leadership, diplomatic work across many years and spanning both political parties, that our panelists present today. it is the work at georgetown has committed itself to pursuing to the expanding work of our asian studies program and several other programs across our

campus that explore, to teaching, scholarship, emersion and research and social life of asia. as the only title 6 resource center for east asia located in our nation's capital, we have an opportunity to connect our students with groundbreaking research and hands-on experience and policy planning and implementation. our commitment to advancing asian studies concludes the certificate for undergraduate students, masters of arts degree in asian studies, student and faculty partnerships, and exchanges in our law asia program, and community medical experiences for our fourth-year medical students in china, the philippines, and nepal. it is in this context that we are honored to post such distinguished panelists for conversation of great national

and global importance. i want to thank our panelists for turning us this afternoon, and i would like to offer my gratitude again to all of you for being here. it is now my honor to to-do's dr. abraham kim -- to introduce dr. abraham kim. served as research manager of government services and principal korean analyst at the global political risk consulting firm eurasia group. managed a group of analysts and research programs covering issues such as international trade, political stability, and emerging markets in the global financial crisis. he has worked to develop new systems and data visualization tools with social science analysis. his writing has appeared in "the

wall street journal." it is my pleasure to welcome to the state chair dr. kim. [applause] >> take you for your kind introduction. but the korean economic institute is honored to be a co- sponsor of this panel of the united states current and past assistant secretaries of state for east asian affairs. i can think of no better partners than the amend school of foreign services and the president and georgetown university to share this platform to explore the future of the united states policies in the asia-pacific. i think that that 21st century will be seen as the asia-pacific

century. much of the economic dynamism and grit will emerge from this region. many of the toughest gruel challenges as well. the rise of china, the prospects of asian economic integration, and the scurvy problems on the korean peninsula. u.s. leadership and continuous engagement in this region will be critical in these and many more issues ahead. as the president of the economic institute, i thank the tremendous past contributions of these medical assistant secretaries of state to the u.s.-korean relationship. more broadly, their tireless efforts to ensure security, stability, and prosperity in the asia-pacific region during their tenure. we look forward to your insights as to discuss about the future and thank you again to dean lancaster, the president, and

georgetown university for co- hosting this time the event. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. i want to thank the school of foreign service helping us put together this event today. forging consensus, for the next administration. my name is victor cha, and what i would like to do for the students in the audience is introduced our panelists because you will understand why we think this is such a great event. i will start with kurt campbell, who has been the assistant secretary of state for east asian affairs since june 2009 for president barack obama. previously he was the ceo and co-founder for the center of new

american security and served as the director of the aspen strategy group and chairman of the editorial group of the "washington quarterly." he was the senior vice president, director of international security programs and national security policy at csis. he is a professor of public policy at the kennedy school of government and the assistant director of the center for science and international affairs at harvard. dr. campbell has served in several capacities in government, director and the national security council staff, and white house fellow at the department of treasury. for his service he received the department of defense medal for distinguished service and for outstanding public service. he served as an officer in the

u.s. neighavy. dr. campbell received his b.a. and the university of california at san diego, a certificate in music in the soviet armenia, and a doctorate in international relations from oxford university. to my left is richard solomon, the assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs from 1989 to 1992. he served as president of united states institute of peace since 1993, during which time he oversaw its grip into a center of international conflict management and applied programs. during the service the government, dr. solomon negotiated the cambodian peace treaty, the first peace-making agreement, had a leading role on the dial on nuclear issues between the united states and korea, helped established apec,

and led the u.s. negotiations with japan come and go yet, and vietnam's. in 1992 to 1993 he served as u.s. ambassador to the philippines where he developed a new framework for security cooperation. but a salomon served as director of policy and planning at the department of state. in 1995 he was awarded the state department of foreign affairs award public service. it to thousand five he received the american political science association's hubert h. humphrey career award ford notable public service by political scientist. dr. solomon started his career as a professor of political science at university of michigan and serve as the head

of the political science department at the rand corporation. he holds a phd with a specialization in china of six from mit. to my far right is winston lord. he served as the assistant secretary of state from 1993 to 1997. he has most recently served as a coat-chairman of the international rescue committee helps refugees abroad and resells them in the united states. he has had a long career a bipartisan service in government, special assistant to the national security adviser, he accompanied kissinger on his secret visit to china and president nixon to china. from 1985 to 1989 he served

under presidents reagan and bush. his other assignments were as the director policy and planning at the state department from 1973 to 1977. in between these posts he has helped and headed a variety of private or diseases related to international affairs. he was president of the council of foreign relations. ambassador lord current a b.a. from yale received several honorary degrees and the defense department's outstanding performance award. to my far left is christopher hill. christopher hill served as assistant secretary of state from stateto 2009 for president george bush and barack obama. he is currently dean of a school

of international studies denver university. cadastre hill is a career member of the foreign service. he has served as u.s. ambassador to the republic of korea. in 2005, he was named head of the u.s. delegation to the six- party talks on the north korean nuclear issue picket previously he served as ambassador to poland from 2000 to 2004, macedonia from,to 1999. he has also served as special assistant to the president for southeast european affairs on the national security council. after hill received the state department's distinguished service award as a member of the u.s. negotiating team in the bosnian peace settlement and was the recipient of an award for

his work on the kuntsevo crisis. ambassador will serve as a peace corps volunteer in cameroon. he graduated from bowdoin college. they sent gentleman, i would like to take a moment to recognize these gentlemen for all the work they have done for the united states in asia and around the world, so if you could just give them a round of applause. [applause] we will have a conversation about different issues in asia, and i will start with a few questions. we will then go to the audience later on to entertain your questions as well. gentlemen, the first question i would like to start with is a question about asia as a

strategic priority. the question i would ask is, as assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs, each of you or among our country must highest-ranking policy makers on asia. in retrospect, i would ask, what was your biggest challenge aside from the prado travel schedule? what was the biggest challenge in making policy and how did your president view asia as a strategic priority? >> thank you to georgetown. i see so many friends around the audience, and it is great to be with such distinguished gatherings and friends all. thank you, victor. i think all of us chaser . challenges, and i would list the couple. i think there was a broad

recognition at the beginning of the obama administration when chris was initially serving that of view was we were perhaps over invested in terms of our engagements in the middle east and south asia. these were important. they were necessary. but that we needed to diversify and perhaps focus more of our time and attention on what would become what i think all of us argue the main, primary focus of diplomacy in the 21st century in the asian-specific region. it is sometimes said that we are back in asia and sometimes have said we are never left. they're both true and both fall street in fact for us to be successful in asia which will have to do much more over a much longer sustained period of time, and very much liked the way you start it by focusing on

bipartisanship. it is important always. making sure that there is a sustained commitment to stronger engagement will be probably the central feature of our success going forward. secondly, it is also the case that we have always been here in the asian-pacific region, but we have to build on the foundation that we have established over decades. this will ensure we are appropriately engaged in multilateral affairs, on our critical bilateral security partnerships, and on the key relations with big stakes in asia like china, india, indonesia, so the challenges are enormous. frankly, the strong leadership from the white house, secretary clinton, have been able to do a lot, and built on some of remarkable achievements of the previous administration,

including the opening to india. i would -- those are the opportunities. for me, is challenges are the personal ones. i have a wife who is also a senior administration official, and we have young children, and try to balance, figuring out how to be in a certain place when you have got pressing either international or domestic family business is remarkably difficult. there is a letdown when you are not there in certain things, or the embarrassment when you're diplomatic interlocutor here's your daughter screaming at the top of her lungs as you are trying to sit and negotiate some aspect of an agreement. i would say, victor, i am not screaming, it is my daughter. it has happened the other way around. i would say if has been a remarkable, as you are going to

each of our resume is an experiences, it has been an incredible ride pyrrhic is a wonderful thing. this is one of the jobs that only a few of us understand when you go out in the region. you are the guy and you're able to do a lot of stock in a way that perhaps the washington you cannot, but it has been a great honor, it has been a wonderful set of opportunities. it is daunting the constant challenges, the poll of different time zones, but over all, i think opportunities and the excitement has a outwait the burdens. -- outweighed the burdens. >> you have put together a terrific exercises. my brain cells require me to read some of books and papers that were part of my experience. i was confirmed as assistant secretary of state one week after tiananmen.

challenge of the george herbert walker bush administration was the effort to salvage what had been and still was viewed as a relationship of tremendous should teach the value to the united states. there are some interesting dynamics. right after tiananmen, various officials were making comments. there was one slight this statement out of the state department about and think exchanges with china, which made it look like it was going to last forever, but it was designed as a short-term comment, but it produced a to ahaha and its leadd china policy being managed out of the white house. as secretary of state baker used to like to say, the china desk officer was that guy in the white house. as you may remember, president

bush had made his first trip abroad right after his election to china. he had served there as liaison officer, said this was a very personal relationship to him, and he wanted to try to keep alive despite the tremendous domestic and international up or after tiananmen. what that led to was first as you may recall, a secret trip that national security adviser brent scowcroft and deputy eagleburger ry deter, and those were an effort to engage done shopping and other leaders to find a way to stabilize this for lee josette. it produced a tremendous domestic backlash in the way that television plays that, you will remember the image of brent

scowcroft toasting premier li pong, who did not evoke fuzzy feelings in the united states, and lead to greater pressure on the relationship. from my point of view as your introduction pointed out, i was trained in chinese affairs. i thought i was gone to be out of the china business. in the ironic ways that the public service works, i probably did the most useful things i did in my career in government apart from to treating some treat president nixon's speeches and presentations in china, negotiating several key agreements with the chinese through the united nations security council. the effort to normalize and the

conflict over cambodia had begun before death tiananmen incident, and the members of the security council, had already begun and negotiating process, and so for two years, i worked with all four members of the security council, the chinese very much being one, and we ended up producing probably the one instance where all members of the permanent members of the security council actually produced a peace agreement. said that was a very unexpected and ratifying outcome. the other interesting thing, secretary baker fell in love with mongolia, and maybe as a way of tweaking the chinese, he was traveling all around china when the relationship was frozen. in 1991, we were in ulan bator,

trying to open this religious up in the circumstance where the soviet union had collapsed. word came up that saddam hussein had invaded kuwait. we hopped on a plan, breaking off with a promising with among goals. we flew to moscow where president bush was talking to soviet leaders, and i was then instructed to fly back to beijing and gain the support of the chinese for a security council resolutions supporting an intervention in support of kuwait. first class flights on aeroflot are something less than first class, but of all the traveling when you serve the region, it turned out to be very

worthwhile. the real challenge of might time as assistant secretary was trying to salvage this relationship and looking back, 19 89, you could say was the end of the beginning, the beginning being the nixon break through, but tiananmen, having so seriously wounded the relationship, the level of distrust that we live with today in our relations with china was derivative of the tiananmen sedan. beginning of the end. hopefully it was only the end of the beginning, and maybe we will see this relationship limp ugh troubled waters. >> ambassador lord, the hardest part of this event was getting ambassador lord here today because of all the difficulties

in new york. the biggest challenges, but you remember the most? >> a footnote, dick just mentioned he was immokalee in 1991. three years later i was there riding a camel in the gobi desert in february. it was still a magic country. i'm delighted be here to. i am glad sandy did not keep me away, at to be with collins which whom i have shared many professional and personal experiences, and of course, here at the school of foreign service at georgetown. a quick note on the role of assistant secretary of state, i do not know how my colleagues feel, but of all the jobs i've had, i thought that was the most demanding in challenging. the most dramatic was being with henry kissinger on a lot of escapades. the most fun was being ambassador. the most grueling was assistant secretary.

i have both a macro and micro example of challenges, i will save that china rollercoaster because we want to get on to other questions. we can get back to that because that was quite a challenge during my time in office. the macro want is shared by all this, and that is to get the attention for this region it deserves. every regional assistant secretary tries to do that from a parochial standpoint pick in our case in the last two decades, the fact that it is so important as the added virtue of being true. it was not just to work real. i will be boring when i talk about the present administration's policy, because i am an unabashed supporter of what they are doing. i am not looking for a job. they have done a fabulous job. they have had the advantage of becoming crystal clear, the importance of asia, both in economic and security terms.

i was determined when i came in in 1993 to try to help overcome the euro-centric some of american foreign policy, which was justified, and preoccupation with other areas, including the middle east, because i did feel this was a crucial area for american national interest. my confirmation statement, making very uneasy that assistant secretary of congressional relations, you are supposed to get a benign statements, i set out a 10-point plan, and i was pushing the envelope on policy even before i was confirmed. i was determined from the beginning to try to raise the profile of this region. i said in my statements that this was -- no region is more important, and i said in the 21st century, no region would be more important. we were lucky with the calendar. when we came in in 1993, the g-

seven meeting was in tokyo, so the president's first overseas trip was in japan, and he made major pronouncements about our commitment to the region. we were the host to apec in seattle, and i worked hard and we succeeded in lifting that from the minister level to the presidential level. we did that not only to show the importance of the region on economic and regional cooperation, but i figured if you had an apec meeting every year, that meant the president had to go to asia every year. the secretary of state and treasury would have to go. we also integrated regional security architecture and brought in china, india, and russia. the foreign minister and the secretary of state would have to go t. pepco and three times agreed. -- a year. we got off to a good start, but

i can only say be partially succeeded in elevating the importance of a shared -- asia. is not as crystal clear as it is today. part because the secretary in the present kept getting dragged back into other issues. the president thought asia was in port. he was an economic animal and realize the importance of trade, but the first couple years of his administration clinton focused on the domestic economy, which is the most important thing you can do for your foreign policy, and above all, today. christopher spent a lot of time in asia to the region, but he would also get subsumed in the bosnia crisis and the middle east, and so although we raised the profile, i do not think we

were able to succeed as kurt campbell has succeeded. i will make one final comment in briefed on the china rollercoaster, because we all have this experience. it affected me personally. in 1993, i negotiated with the leaders of the house and senate a deal to link mfn treatment, a moderate deal. was the successful at the time and greeted by everyone who later criticized said that i became a hero, and later with other accomplishments, i was one of the last two remaining candidates to be deputy secretary of state. strobe talbott was picked and was a terrific and right choice. flash forward six months, the deal fell apart, partly because

a president clinton's part. his cabinet did not like linking trade to human rights. china salt that doesn't incentive -- china saw the disincentive in our government. the president did not rein in his cabinet. i went from almost number two in state almost being fired. with the search of crisis early in the administration with the chinese, not only this one but this a of the taiwan president and a tie 1 missile crisis later, which ended up the following year very successfully, got the relationship back on tried, set up a series of summits between our presidents trick it all ended well, but it underlines the pendulum swings you feel boat in substantive policy

terms and in personal career terms. >> sadr hill, thank you for turning yes, coming in from denver despite the logistics' created by sandy. biggest challenges? >> it was no challenge coming in from denver. it was 68 and sunny. what a pleasure it is to be back here, and thank you so much for putting this together. as i am looking out in the audience, i see a lot of people i work with during those days, and as we talk about the sort of onerous and at times odious job, thing that made it better is you have extremely talented people to work with. those are people who made that job easier and made the job enjoyable at times. the other thing that makes the job easier is that i think our

president and our secretary of state have taken this position seriously and put a very good people in it. when you become the assistant secretary, chances are pretty good that you got a pretty good predecessor there. i had jim kelly who had done a lot of work to set something up and to get through a very tough time. and the other thing is that in the state department, you are not working alone, you are working with the national security council staff and so i had very talented people, mike green here in the audience worked with him until he was replaced by dennis wilder. i must say i felt i was a really good team. for the challenges, i worked in the job in the second bush administration, and basically the challenge i think is always the amount of bandwidth in washington.

if you take issues for being important and being urgent, it seems the urgent always beats out the important. maybe dating back to a few years before, when ambassador lord had a position, i think everyone understood east asia definitely important. i was getting constantly trumped by the fact that we had a double header going in afghanistan and iraq and quite understandably we had a president who had to be immersed in those issues. often, and one of the challenges, was that often when they booked to another part of the world like east asia, it was what this country's meant to the challenge, which was waging the war on terrorism. and yet if you go to a country like indonesia, this is a country, you put it on a map,

that goes from california to bermuda. it is huge, an enormous population, and to reduce indonesia's only to a bit player in the overall issue of the global war on terrorism did not sit too well in indonesia. part of the challenge was to really work with these countries and of themselves and not just as in shipments of something that was going on in another part of the world. akin to the job via -- i came to the job via p.e. and master of korea, and i thought i was in a meeting with stephen hadley, and condi rice joined the meeting, and both said our country has been going through two wars, and now we need some diplomats. i think they made it clear that we really need to start taping down some issues in the world. we cannot have everything blowing up in our faces.

one of the issues that i was very aware of coming from so eoul some 40% of south koreans were blaming the united states for the north korean nuclear crisis. if you can imagine that. a lot of what was really necessary in terms of the six- party talks, the process that president bush had set up with others, that jim kelly and mike greene had gotten going, that have elaborated some of the negotiating strategies, that process was very important not so much in terms of dealing with always lovable north koreans -- just want to pick them up and hug them, you know -- [laughter] but the process was important because we have allies who were

counting us. i think the thing we did in terms of working with the rok in closing that daylight that appeared between our two countries and creating a situation where we could work with the rok on a lot of things, was a very important aspect of what we did. another thing, and this goes back to something that dick's element mentioned, we do best with china when we are doing real stuff with china. the real stuff that we did with china on cambodia we were having trouble finding real stuff to do with china and especially in the wake of some of the issues that have emerged with china. to be sure, we set up all these working groups. i think we had a 365 dialogue with china on every subject, but we were not finding everything that we could sit down and say we would do this if you do that and do kind of a real address

real problems. i think the six-parties are important because of the patterns of cooperation, the patterns of interactions we established with the chinese. when i look at these -- and i will get this in further discussions -- when i look at what -- where we will go in the future, we had to figure out that relationship with china, and it is somewhere between g-2 and china as the everlasting enemy with which we are bound conflict. this is over reading of the penalties in wars. -- peloponnesian wars. i think we can put aside this notion of an inevitable conflict and rather replace it with a notion that that relationship is indeed too big to fail and we need figure

things out. when i think back, it was this issue of competing with the importance, competing with the urgent, of trying to open up some new areas. for example, i found out that i was the first assistant secretary since win lord go to new zealand. now i think you go every day. fishing there, you do everything there with the new zealanders. that should have been low- hanging fruit. you needed an extension ladder to get going with new zealand. i am proud we did, because that is a country you should not take any country for granted, and especially when you have all these problems, and we had all these crazy things -- the solomon islands and all things like that. you need some countries you will work with, and we found that we had some allies.

thanks for putting this together. i really look forward to a discussion. >> that is great. all of you in your comments did mention china. why don't we could threaten us why don't we go directly to the question of china. when i teach international relations, after we read the peloponnesian war, one of the things i tell my students, the most important unanswered question in international relations today is how international systems deal with a rise of china. the question to all of you would be how well do you think united states has dealt with the rise of china over the years, and what have you learned from each other from past experiences about dealing with china? >> it is a great question, a very hard question, and our colleagues have already touched

on elements of it. i believe it will be the most consequential foreign policy challenge that we will ever face, much more typical than any relationship that we have had in the preceding year -- preceding years, largely because of its complexity, because it encompasses every element of statecraft, economic, intercourse of people-to-people diplomacy, and hard core strategies. it will be vexing and challenging. it does not do us a service, and i agree very much with crist in this respect, that much of our strategic parameters are dominated by 50 years of the cold war. so some of those frameworks, animate certain aspects of how we think about asia today. we hear constant refrains about whether the united states is

trying to contain china. sort of a ladder-day soviet union, without the recognition that the number-one goal of every country in asia is to improve its relationship with china. if you believe that, as i do, and i experienced it on a daily basis, to think about constructing a strategy that did not reflect that fundamental truth seems nonsensical. i think the challenge is just going to be enormous. my one recommendation would be that there are a lot of ways that people think about asia. there are some that say look at the core of our strategy, like a pinwheel, has to be china, and that you basically engage directly with beijing and that things flow from that relationship. others would say that key to managing hard issues is maintaining strong alliances and partnerships to key countries like japan and south korea.

would be others that would say there are other ways to think about trans-national chalices that unite all the countries in asia together as we deal with things like climate change. my only recommendation and actually my hope for whoever comes, who follows in our footsteps, is there is a recognition that could turn a policy is best done when it is embedded in an asian strategy, and that could turn a policy does not mean just going to beijing. it means working in the neighborhood, working to ensure that other countries are with you in dialogue and discussions on issues of mutual concern. you'd have a much better shot of getting the kind of relationships and agreements and i very much agree with what chris said. it was a heyday at corp. with a

six-party talks, but part of it was working but the context of a constellation of states. the truth is in this sometimes the case that when those of our generation sit down and talked with those that were at the creation, the architects of u.s.-china relationship, it is my sense is there is a little bit of scolding about we did it this wait 40 years ago and you guys have sort of lost the hang of it. i would simply say the strategy is that you adopt when you were trying to lure an inward- looking underdeveloped nation out into the world are incredibly difficult, different, from the strategies that you apply when you are dealing with the country that is rising faster than any country in history, with a very strong

sense of itself, strong sense of nationalism, and how you and gauge and shape their global choices. and so i think it will be the dominant feature of american foreign policy going forward. i believe we will have a welcome in asia that wants a stronger, engaged america. that is the biggest difference for my tenure to the tenure of these gentlemen. in the past there was often some ambivalence about the united states. no longer. everyone in asia wants more of the united states straight our job will be to see if we have the wit and wisdom to sustain a very high level, operating engagement that involves not just china, which will be at the center of much of what we do, but also the other nations of asia, japan, south korea. is a critical component of our engagement strategy. australia, new zealand, and a

rising india. >> may i jump in here, because he mention the architects for a year ago scolding. do not include me inaccurate. i agree exactly with your approach spi. this pivot toward asia at the this administration has done successfully, there are three myths and it relates to what you're talking about. one myth its started in 2011. the other myth is it is is essentially military. and it is also against china. all those things are wrong. it started in 2009 and was because asia is important, not just china, but india, japan, southeast asia in general, and the economies. it is designed to welcome china in the pacific community, not to contain china. they are difficult to deal with.

let's place this relationship in historical perspective. in the 1970's, we have a conceptual relationship with china. we had no real concrete exchanges. it was mostly balancing the soviet union during the cold war and talking in strategic terms about global affairs. in the 1980's we began to keep pick up concrete exchanges, and i was fortunate to beat in china when we began to increase trade, cooperating in afghanistan, and along the soviet border. then along came tiananmen. in the 1990's, the relationship had to adjust to dramatic elements. the berlin wall